Ebola: The Rage (eBook)

Mark Kramer (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
260 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-8975-8 (ISBN)

Infos

A flu virus mutates into a viral pathogen with a mortality rate that is over 80%. Scientists attempt to create a vaccine to stop the progress of the virus. In the process, an element of the pathogen causes victims to become enraged and violent. The Rage, as it is called, threatens to disrupt every nation on the planet. It is up to three researchers to find a way to save mankind.

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A flu virus emerges in Mumbai, India. For weeks, no one is concerned. After all, the flu appears every year. But this virus is different. It has one unusual symptom. Some of those infected with the virus become enraged. They become violent and destructive. As the virus progresses, the Rage, as it is being called, begins to concern world governments. Something has to be done to stop it. Mick Delaney, CEO of the pharmaceutical company Immutrends is called on by the president of the United States to develop a vaccine for the Rage. From that research, Mick discovers something inexplicably frightening: the Mumbai Flu, the Rage, will eventually evolve into an Ebola variant, something Mick names Ebola Air. That airborne virus could have a mortality rate of over 90 percent. It could lead to an extinction-level event, one that would all but destroy mankind. Because of the potential for such a threat, Mick and his partners, Grant Tracer and Emily Adkins, design a vast underground shelter to be built in the Montana wilderness. The project, called the Core, will allow up to two hundred members to be protected from the pandemic for up to twenty years. Members will be sent a signal when it is time to travel to Montana. Inside the Core, his team will attempt to find a vaccine for Ebola Air. But there's a larger question-how did a flu virus mutate into an Ebola strain?

Textauszug

CHAPTER 2

Outbreaks

2003–2015

When Michael (Mick) Delaney received an email from his research colleague and business partner, Grant Tracer, his heart began to race. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had both just declared a new outbreak of EBOV, the Ebola variant known as Ebola Zaire, or EZ. The epicenter was in the Republic of the Congo, where the cases were mounting. It was January 2015.

Of the several cataloged EBOV variations, including Sudan, Reston, Tai Forest, and Bundibugyo, Zaire was the killer, the one with a mortality rate between 50 and 90 percent.

As he read Grant’s email, it became clear that this could be the opportunity he was looking for, a chance to design a vaccine that would eliminate the Ebola scourge once and for all. If his bio-pharma company, Immutrends, was going to attract investors to take it public, he would need something spectacular to get the job done. Designing a vaccine for Ebola Zaire would undoubtedly do the trick. But it wouldn’t be without costs or risks. All of this was to be the beginning of the company’s future in vaccine design. The road had been an interesting one.

Mick’s infatuation with science started at an early age, when his father, a professor of biochemistry at USC Berkeley, provided him with the foundations for scientific inquiry. By the time Mick was ready to consider a college major, he had already decided. He would study epidemiology, notably the science of global pandemics. He had flirted with immunology as a course of study but found it too limiting. He wanted to know how pandemics start, how they grow, and how, if they can be stopped at all, science can use its tools to eradicate them.

When Mick entered the PhD program at Berkeley, he was twenty-two and already a gifted student. His master’s thesis was a short study of filoviruses, those filament-like strands of RNA that cause some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens, viruses like Marburg, Ebola, and Simian Hemorrhagic Fever (SHF). In 2003, at the age of twenty-six, he was awarded his doctorate in epidemiology. From that point forward, Mick’s only goal was the study of viruses.

Mick taught undergrads for three years before deciding he was getting tired of the academic rat race. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to do research; nothing like that. He’d been in school since he was five. He wanted to take a break.

In 2006, a friend of his, Grant Tracer, a PhD in epidemiology from Stanford, had enlisted in the Navy SEAL program. He and Mick had met at a conference at UCLA. They’d become friends, corresponding by phone and email. When Mick told Grant about needing a break, Grant told him about military service. It might be just the thing. Plus, because of his advanced degrees, he could get an immediate commission. It would allow him to focus on his physical well-being for a change. The pitch worked. It sounded like a great idea.

That’s what Mick did. He enlisted in the army with the rank of captain. Within six weeks, he was on his way to Iraq. The army, it turned out, had a place for a trained virus researcher. The war in the Middle East had unleashed more than one pathogen, sometimes bacterial, sometimes viral. There were also cases of chemical warfare. Some had been used in Syria, killing hundreds of innocent villagers. With his expertise, he would be able to help. It sounded exciting.

By late 2010, Mick had served in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan and had seen combat in all three theaters. He’d been assigned to a ranger unit, which meant there was always the risk of confrontation with the enemy. When he left the service in December of that year, he was at the rank of major. More than that, he was ready to get back to work.

At six foot two, Mick was taller than most of his colleagues. He was described as both ruggedly handsome and intriguing. His dark-brown hair and green eyes gave away his Irish heritage, something he wore proudly. Not thin, not fat, not stocky. Just right, his mother used to tell him. He had a temper, but the army taught him how to control it. One thing was for sure, Mick Delaney was his own man.

In 2011, Mick taught graduate classes at Berkeley while at the same time studying the history of major global outbreaks, including the Plague (Black Death, 1347–51) and the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918, commonly called the Spanish Flu. A variant of the H1N1 virus, the Spanish Flu infected nearly five hundred million people, penetrating virtually every geographical region on the planet. Before it ended, there were, by some accounts, as many as fifty million deaths.

In March 2012, an outbreak of Ebola, SUDV, appeared in Uganda, Africa. Mick had studied the Ebola viruses, but this was the first one since his PhD that he would witness firsthand. With a grant from USC, he flew to Africa and spent nearly three months studying the Sudan Ebola variant. Four hundred twenty-five people became infected, and two hundred twenty-four died. That put the mortality rate at 53 percent. No matter how the variant was transmitted, the outcome was a dangerous one. Containment was absolutely imperative. When he returned to California, the outbreak fizzled, ending in early 2013. But that wasn’t the end. Not by a long shot.

In the summer of that year, Mick met another PhD researcher at Berkeley, Emily Adkins. She had been studying how bio-organisms from other planets might infect humans on Earth. It was part of the astrophysics department’s newly designed program on the feasibility of extraplanetary survival. But she was also interested in the possibility of bacterial or even viral organisms on other planets. If humans were going to visit Mars, she wanted to be sure that they didn’t contaminate the Martian environment with Earth’s own natural pathogens.

Conversely, there was the real fear that returning astronauts might introduce unknown viral agents into the Earth’s ecosystems, contaminating the entire planet. Because of Emily’s interest in extraplanetary epidemiology, she was steered to a second PhD, this one in the origins of viral pandemics. That’s what she was doing when she met Mick. They were on the same page.

Emily was an attractive twenty-six-year-old woman. Blonde, taller than average, she had a killer smile and a sexy little dimple on her left cheek. She and Mick had become friends, but as there was no romantic spark between them, their relationship flourished into an extraordinary professional symbiosis, where each benefitted from the other’s work. Emily’s personality was part of the reason she and Mick did well together. There wasn’t much small talk. Research was about data, Mick liked to say. Show me data, and I’ll show you a conclusion. That was Emily Adkins too. When they focused on a project, they never looked up until it was completed.

In late 2013, after his return from Africa, Mick decided to start a fledgling pharmaceutical and research company. It would design, test, and market vaccines for various viral pathogens, including Ebola and cancer. He asked Emily to be his VP and a principal in the company. She agreed immediately. Mick also needed another talented epidemiologist, someone who could travel globally and who knew the ropes. One person came to mind: Grant Tracer.

After Grant left the navy, he traveled for a while before starting a venture capital company, one focused specifically on pharmaceutical startups. When he heard that Mick was planning to take his company public, he wanted in. One phone call did it. He would help finance the venture, but in return, he wanted to be a principal stockholder. Mick and Emily agreed. But there was the question of timing. If they were going to launch a successful vaccine venture, they would need something to grab investors’ attention. Almost immediately, Ebola came to mind. If there was a new outbreak, it might be the opportunity the group was looking for. The opportunity didn’t come immediately. It took nearly two years. Now they were about to move forward another step. Ebola was back.

An imposing personality, Grant was able to sell virtually any proposal to prospective clients. Grant’s physical stature was enough to intimidate anyone. Tall, dark hair, broad shoulders, a constant beard stubble, he was the portrait of machismo, but without the arrogance.

Grant had heard the news first. In January 2015, he fired off a quick email to his partner. It was succinct: New outbreaks in Gabon and The Republic of Congo. Ebola Zaire. Do you want to discuss? Possible opportunity for a vaccine. Travel? It was signed: Grant Tracer, VP, Immutrends.

When Mick showed Emily Grant’s email message, she was instantly intrigued. She wanted to be part of it. After all, the whole idea was to be able to create a vaccine for Ebola, something no one else had been able to achieve. Getting to Africa, that was another issue. Because of the outbreak there, travel visas were restricted. If the team wanted to design a vaccine, it would need blood samples from an infected agent. By February 2015, the Ebola outbreak was worsening. This was what Grant wanted to convey. It was an opportunity.

Mick appealed to some of his contacts in the WHO, people who owed him a...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.7.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-8975-1 / 1098389751
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-8975-8 / 9781098389758