The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston

The Demon in the Freezer

“The Demon in the Freezer” by Richard Preston is a very interesting read that is about terrorist attacks after 9/11 and how smallpox might become a future terrorist in the bio world. This book gives some history about smallpox including details of the smallpox outbreak in Germany in 1970. Then later the disease being treated by the World Health Organization. The virus was then put away into labs one in the United States and one in Russia where scientists would look and research more about it. Some doctors believe that terrorists have access to this virus, doctors have developed smallpox experiments to discover more effective vaccines in case the virus was released again.

This book is divided into about 8 sections. It starts with the details surrounding the death of Robert Stevens, just after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. An autopsy showed that Robert Stevens died of inhalation anthrax. Anthrax illnesses among people exposed to the nation frightened many people. Some people believed that these illnesses might also contain smallpox. There had only been 18 cases of these illnesses in the United States, the last reported case was 20 years prior to Robert Stevens death.

The book then goes on to tell the story about Peter Los a man in West Germany who suffered from smallpox. After many days he was then hospitalized but the staff did not realize he had smallpox, which is a highly contagious illness. Richard Preston gives detailed and vivid descriptions of small pox and how the disease takes over the body. Peter Los was lucky and survived, but his illness had caused many others to lose their lives, since he had exposed many others to the disease. Many hospitals have learned from this story and it shows that small pox germs can go long distances, and how a victim can go unnoticed for days with smallpox.

Next the book talks about how the smallpox virus has affected the human species. It is a theory that smallpox may have come from animals originally, and then made its way to humans around 3,000 years ago. The book goes on to give many more details and stories about this topic.

Overall my impression of this book is good. I thought it was interesting. This book is full of facts, real life stories and events and is intense. If anyone likes a thriller book this would be the best choice for you. This story is not a fiction story with a plot and storyline which is why I think I was drawn to it because it is very different from anything I have read before. Even though I do enjoy fiction books I did enjoy how this book was