AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, son of a bitch.” There was the sound of a huge yawn. “haven’t heard from you in a coon’s age. Wish I wasn’t hearing from you right now, either. Do you know what fucking time it is?”
Swain looked at his watch. “Let’s see; it’s nine AM here, so that would make it . . . three AM, right?”
“Bastard.” That was said around another yawn. “Okay, why’d you wake me up? This had better be good.”
“I don’t know if it is or not.” Swain cradled the phone between his jaw and shoulder as he changed gears. “What do you know about avian influenza?”
“Bird flu? You’re shittin’ me, right?”
“Nope, I’m serious as a heart attack. Is bird flu dangerous?”
“Not to wild fowl, but it is to domesticated birds. Remember seeing on the news several years back . . . 1997, I think . . . where there was an outbreak of bird flu in Hong Kong and they killed almost two million chickens to get rid of it?”
“Television was kind of hard to come by where I was. So it kills birds?”
“Yeah. Not a hundred percent of them, but enough. The problem is, sometimes the virus mutates and is transmitted from birds to humans.”
“Is that more dangerous than regular flu?”
“Way more. If it’s a virus the human body hasn’t seen before, then there’s no immune system resistance to it and you get sick as hell. Then you either die or you don’t.”
“That’s comforting.”
“We’ve been lucky so far. We’ve had a few mutations that allow bird-to-human infection, but none of the avian influenza viruses have made the magic leap that allows for human-to-human transmission. Like I said, so far. We’re way overdue for a recombinant virus to hit us hard, but the avian flu that’s been hitting Hong Kong doesn’t look like a recombinant; it looks like a true avian virus. But it’s infecting people, too. If it mutates that little bit needed for human-to-human infection, then we’re in big trouble, because we’d have even less resistance to it than we would have to a recombinant virus that we’d seen at least a part of before.”
“What about vaccines for it?” Swain drove around a curve and there was Lily’s apartment building, but she wasn’t standing on the street with all her worldly goods around her, so he drove past it to make another convoluted loop.
“We wouldn’t have one. New viruses hit hard and fast; vaccines take months to test, to get them out to the general populace. By the time we could get an effective vaccine against an avian virus, a lot of people will have died. It’s even harder to get one for avian influenza than it is for regular influenza viruses, because vaccines are cultured in eggs and—guess what—avian influenza will kill the eggs.”
“Is this something the CDC is really worried about?”
“You’re kidding, right? Flu kills a hell of a lot more people than the exotics that get all the sexy press, like the hemorrhagic fevers.”
“So if some lab or something developed the vaccine ahead of time, then let the virus loose, they could make some serious money?”
“Hey, wait a minute.” All sleepiness had fled Micah’s tone. “Swain, are you telling me what I think you’re telling me? That’s a possible scenario?”
“I’ve just heard about it; I haven’t checked it out yet. I don’t know if there’s anything to it. I wanted to see if it’s feasible first.”
“Feasible? It’s brilliant, but it’s a fucking nightmare. We’ve dodged the bullet the past few years, only regular influenza viruses have made the rounds, but we’re holding our breaths and trying to get a reliable method of producing the vaccine before one of these damn bugs turns on us. Worldwide, even with antiviral drugs and medications to treat the complications, millions would die.”
“Would it hit kids hardest?”
“Sure. Kids don’t have the fully-developed immune system adults have. They haven’t been exposed to as many bugs.”
“Thanks, Micah, that’s what I needed to know.” It wasn’t what he’d wanted to hear, but at least now he knew what he was dealing with.
“Don’t hang up! Swain, is something like that going on? You have to tell me, man, you can’t let us get caught flat-footed by something like this.”
“I won’t.” He hoped; he’d have to take some fail-safe precautions. “It’s just a rumor, nothing concrete. Flu season has already started, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s looking like a normal season so far. But if you find out there’s some bastard looking to make a fortune with a virus like this, we need to know.”
“You’ll be the first,” Swain lied. “I’ll call you next week and let you know what’s going on, good or bad.” He would call, but Micah probably wouldn’t be the first.
“Even at three fucking AM,” Micah groused.
“You got it. Thanks, pal.”
