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tresat 's review for:
The Hot Zone
by Richard Preston
This is possibly the most terrifying thing I've ever read. Not due to the charmingly melodramatic way Preston frames every description of the disease. Or the downright silly "Gaia's" revenge thesis presented at the end.
No, it's because every time I've seen a fictional disease outbreak scenario, once the military deploys, they always seem to able to quickly isolate and control the outbreak, albeit in a heavy handed manner. And then inevitably hubris, or malice, or some other venial human failing results in a series of event resulting in containment being breached. But that's just to drive the drama, the message conveyed is always "do things by the book and we'll be able to handle this".
But this real world example shows that to be a bald faced lie. Hopefully procedures have been reevaluated and technologies have improved, because Washington DC at least, is lucky to still be around.
Why do the spacesuits keep tearing? Why? Why aren't they made of tougher fabric? Why are people allowed to transport horrific viruses on the trunks of their Corrolas in plastic garbage bags without consequences? Why does the CDC have to measure dicks with the Army at the dawn of a potential epidemic? Why are the most valuable personnel literally sniffing unknown virus samples? Why are people allowed to conceal possible exposure out of fear of being quarantined? Why are the most knowledgeable personnel being needlessly exposed to the most risk? Why are careers and media deception prioritized over safety? Why risk stabbing the monkeys 3 times to execute them humanely rather than just gassing the whole fucking building or something? Why, more than anything else, does the military wait for the lawyers to give the okay before starting its operating?
I'd like to think there are reasons for these things (and more) and that people who think about these scenarios for a living have so thought, and this is the best they have come up with, for reasons I'm simply ignorant about... but that seems like a big stretch. All I know is, if the military ever shows up at a building in my town, and won't show the news crews what they're doing, but assure them everything is fine, I'm fleeing town.
Which sucks for the rest of the country, because of Reston is any guide, by then I'll have already been infected.
No, it's because every time I've seen a fictional disease outbreak scenario, once the military deploys, they always seem to able to quickly isolate and control the outbreak, albeit in a heavy handed manner. And then inevitably hubris, or malice, or some other venial human failing results in a series of event resulting in containment being breached. But that's just to drive the drama, the message conveyed is always "do things by the book and we'll be able to handle this".
But this real world example shows that to be a bald faced lie. Hopefully procedures have been reevaluated and technologies have improved, because Washington DC at least, is lucky to still be around.
Why do the spacesuits keep tearing? Why? Why aren't they made of tougher fabric? Why are people allowed to transport horrific viruses on the trunks of their Corrolas in plastic garbage bags without consequences? Why does the CDC have to measure dicks with the Army at the dawn of a potential epidemic? Why are the most valuable personnel literally sniffing unknown virus samples? Why are people allowed to conceal possible exposure out of fear of being quarantined? Why are the most knowledgeable personnel being needlessly exposed to the most risk? Why are careers and media deception prioritized over safety? Why risk stabbing the monkeys 3 times to execute them humanely rather than just gassing the whole fucking building or something? Why, more than anything else, does the military wait for the lawyers to give the okay before starting its operating?
I'd like to think there are reasons for these things (and more) and that people who think about these scenarios for a living have so thought, and this is the best they have come up with, for reasons I'm simply ignorant about... but that seems like a big stretch. All I know is, if the military ever shows up at a building in my town, and won't show the news crews what they're doing, but assure them everything is fine, I'm fleeing town.
Which sucks for the rest of the country, because of Reston is any guide, by then I'll have already been infected.