Free Reckless Creed by Alex Kava Page B

were exposed to Ebola, so you know how deadly that virus is.” His eyes met hers. “But Ebola spreads through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids. Unless someone with the virus gets on a plane, there’s no way for it to travel. Now consider a virus just as deadly. The bird flu is spread by migratory birds.”
    Platt glanced around, planted his elbows on the table, and leaned toward her so she’d be able to hear his quiet voice despite the restaurant noise.
    â€œIf Shaw has succeeded in making it airborne, she’d need very few carriers like Tony Briggs. You said you wanted to be in on our speculations. Well, look at it this way—all she’d need to do is figure out how to infect flocks of birds. That would be one way to spread the virus across the country and do so very quickly. If she’s successful”—and Platt paused as his eyes scanned the surroundings—“if she’s successful, then we could have a pandemic on our hands.”

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    I n China,” Platt explained, “people contracted the bird flu by actually handling infected birds. I think the mortality rate was around fifty-five percent. In 2013 there was a new strain, H7N9. It’s so genetically unstable that since then, there have been forty-eight subtypes found. It’s a good example of how the bird flu is able to swap genes with other flus, not just to survive but to get stronger. If it does that in nature, can you imagine what we’d have with a hybrid strain created specifically to infect humans? And if there’s a way to make it airborne and transfer from birds to humans, then human to human . . .”
    â€œWhat about a vaccine?” O’Dell asked. “Surely the CDC has been working on something.”
    â€œThey’ve stockpiled a vaccine for H5N1. But it might be useless. The virus mutates quickly. The best way to create an effective vaccine is to reverse engineer the actual virus that you’re trying to protect against. But we need to have that specific virus first.”
    â€œSo if Bix can isolate several victims that have been infected,will he be able to do that? Create a specific vaccine for this one? Isn’t that what the CDC does with the common flu?”
    â€œYes, but it could take months. Seasonal flu vaccines cause antibodies to develop within our bodies about two weeks after the shot is received. The antibodies provide protection against infection caused from viruses that are included in the vaccine.”
    â€œAnd how do they know what viruses to include? Surely seasonal flus are different from one year to the next.”
    â€œYes, that’s true. They use available research that indicates which ones will be most common for the upcoming season.”
    O’Dell raised an eyebrow.
    â€œI know, it sounds like a crapshoot—but you did not hear that from me. So imagine trying to do that with a new virus that might even mutate by the time you’ve created the new vaccine. This is one of the trickiest. That’s why it could be so dangerous. I can’t even tell you how many millions of dollars and valuable hours have been spent on vaccines that are too little, too late.”
    Platt kept looking up at one of the big-screen TVs. She knew he was watching for breaking news despite all the precautions they’d taken to keep this under wraps.
    â€œYou can’t keep this quiet for much longer,” O’Dell said. “People need to know or else they’ll think they just have the regular flu.”
    Platt’s eyes darted around again. “That’s Roger’s call.”
    She sat back and let out a frustrated sigh.
    â€œListen,” Platt continued, his eyes intense, and she saw his frustration. “Hurricane Katrina taught us the need to be faster and quicker in evacuating cities. But we still have no idea how to quarantine an entire city. I have to trust Roger Bix and the CDC on thisone,