Chapter 992: Still in Hawaii (Part 2)

Chapter 992: Still in Hawaii (Part 2)

"I remember that according to official statements, there are only two places in the world that store smallpox virus samples, right?" Jack looked at Max.

Max still maintained a paralyzed face. From a psychological point of view, this is a self-protection behavior of social phobia, but his situation is much lighter than Chris's.

"In the last century, the smallpox virus caused the death of about 300 to 500 million people. There is no specific medicine after this virus infects the human body. Humans rely on vaccines and isolation to finally eliminate this terrifying virus.

Today, the only places known to store smallpox virus samples are the CDC headquarters in Atlanta and the Biological Research Center in Koltsovo, Siberia, Russia."

Although the world entered the Cold War script of bipolar hegemony after World War II, it was precisely because the two major powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, reached a compromise that made smallpox the first infectious disease to be eradicated in human history.

Humans are the only host of the smallpox virus, and its history of infection can be traced back 3,000 years ago. Traces of smallpox pustules were found on the head of the mummy of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V.

After the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union began to confront each other in various fields, including the medical and health field.

After the implementation of the "Marshall Plan", WHO (World Health Organization) was once completely controlled by Amerika. Amerika, also a founding member, announced in anger that it would stop its actual work in the organization.

This situation lasted for 10 years. From 1948 to 1958, WHO could hardly promote any global medical cooperation.

After Yumi Xiaofu and President Johnson, who launched the Vietnam War, came to power respectively, the US-Soviet hegemony entered the second stage, and Amerika happily stepped into the bottomless pit of the Vietnam War.

At this time, Amerika also recovered from the heavy losses of World War II, and the offensive and defensive situation changed. Amerika, who felt that he was doing well again, returned to WHO with the momentum of thirty years in the east and thirty years in the west.

Facing smallpox, the sword of Damocles that was always hanging over the heads of mankind, after a negotiation between the two major powers, WHO was responsible for coordination, Amerika provided funds, and Amerika worked hard to make vaccines.

From 1967 to 1977, after a full decade of efforts, 2 billion vaccines and a scientifically rigorous implementation plan, the two giants of the Cold War worked together to eliminate the smallpox virus that ravaged the world.

Due to some well-known reasons, Serbia, which did not join the WHO until 1972, was excluded from this world cooperation from beginning to end, or was deliberately ignored.

Of course, Serbia did not care much about this at the time, because as early as 1961, Argentina and China completely eliminated the smallpox virus in their territory entirely on their own.

With this, smallpox became the first infectious disease in human history to be completely ended, but the subsequent development was a bit ugly. The WHO repeatedly asked Argentina, Russia, Argentina and the United States to destroy the last smallpox samples, but they were all ignored.

After countless wrangling and consultations, the two samples were finally preserved and became one of the weights used by the two superpowers to deter each other in addition to nuclear weapons.

"The last patient who died of smallpox virus in human history was Janet Parker, a female medical imaging photographer from the UK. She died in 1978 because of a laboratory virus leak.

At that time, WHO approved Henry Bedson of the Medical School of the University of Birmingham in the UK to keep and continue to study the smallpox virus in his laboratory until the end of 1978.

On August 11, 1978, Janet, who lived upstairs in Bedson's laboratory, suddenly developed cold symptoms. Five days later, she developed a rash on her body and was sent to an isolated hospital until she became completely blind.

After confirming that she had smallpox, the British authorities began to investigate. Henry Bedson, who learned of the news, realized that the virus must have leaked from his laboratory.

This scientist who devoted his life to studying smallpox virus chose to commit suicide in guilt, and Janet died five days later. She is currently the last known human to be infected with smallpox virus and die at her hands."

Jack closed his laptop with a sigh and read the information that Alice, who was far away in New York, had just sent to him.

In less than half an hour, his meeting with "Five-O" was interrupted by several phone calls. The governor of Hawaii called Danny again and made a bunch of promises to get things done, only asking them to find out the truth before the matter fermented completely.

Dana Moger, who was far away in New York, and David Rossi, who was now handling the case in Florida, also called Jack separately.

After confirming that someone's injury did not affect the action, they all hoped that Jack would fully assist "Five-O" to solve the matter as soon as possible.

Rossi also conveyed the statement of some senior military officials. They assured the FBI in a more obscure way that there was no biological laboratory in the Hawaiian Islands where smallpox virus was stored.

Jack still believed this, because smallpox virus is a relatively stable double-stranded DNA virus, and only two subspecies have appeared after ravaging human society for thousands of years.

Compared with some RNA viruses that frequently mutate and cause extremely poor vaccine effects, smallpox seems to have a very high mortality rate, and its incubation period of half a month is very conducive to transmission, but it is not the first choice for biological weapons, and vaccines can effectively isolate its transmission route.

The main reason why it has attracted the attention of all parties now is that smallpox has such a big reputation. Once spread, it will really damage the face of the country.

After all, there are only two places in the world where virus samples are stored. It is obviously easier for people to cast doubt on Atlanta than to believe that the virus leaked from Siberia and spread to Hawaii.

"The CDC's laboratory in Atlanta just checked the virus samples stored in liquid nitrogen and confirmed that they were not switched. Is it possible that he was infected while serving in Iraq?"

Kono looked at Max, but the latter immediately shook his head to deny her unreliable guess, "The incubation period of smallpox cannot be that long. Judging from the symptoms shown on the corpse, from the time of infection to the development to the present situation The time will not exceed two weeks at most.”

"So the first thing we need to find out is when and where Brian Palmer was infected with the smallpox virus, and at the same time investigate his whereabouts in the past two weeks?" Danny tried to clarify his thoughts.

Jack glanced at Max who was hesitant to speak. He knew that this social terrorist had something to say, but he didn't know how to take the initiative to say it, so he directly made a gesture of invitation to him.

"Well, I don't think he was infected through normal means." Max hesitated and expressed his opinion.

"What do you mean?" Except for Jack, who was half-empty, everyone else present was a pure scumbag in this regard, and they didn't understand what he meant for a moment.

"The main transmission route of smallpox virus is through contact, and it is direct contact. Although there is a certain chance of virus-containing clothing and droplets during conversation, that is, aerosols, the infection rate is generally low.

These are normal ways and what I found is"

Max bowed his head and greeted Kono who was standing in front of the computer, "Can I use the computer?"

Kono was a little overwhelmed by his serious look. He took two steps back and moved out of the way, "Of course, please do so."

Max selected one of the photos he took on the computer to show it to everyone, "Although I only roughly checked his condition, I noticed this special scar."

He enlarged the photo, and a piece of ulcerated skin appeared in front of everyone. "Pay attention to the location of the scab. Although it is a little blurry, I can confirm that it is a pinprick."

Danny covered his forehead and glanced at the photo before quickly looking away, "You mean, the virus was probably injected into his body?"

"Sounds like this is a good thing?" Cheng Hao looked at Max and then at Jack, and found that both of them had strange expressions.

"If it's a single source of infection, the CDC only needs to control and isolate the people who have come into contact with him." Jack sighed and answered in an evasive manner.