The [Freak] Show, vol. 6

(October '01 Issue)


The following was written on Sept. 19, shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Any similarities between this article and events after Sept. 19 are purely coincidental and altogether not cool at all.

The following should be considered a “worst-case scenario” until proven otherwise.


In light of the recent events in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, one cannot help but wonder what the provocation was behind these attacks. Immediately after the attacks, bin Laden was blamed. Osama bin Laden is of course a Saudi “terrorist” living in Afghanistan. His group, known as Al Qaeda, were immediately implicated in the plane crashes.

But that is not why I’m writing this. Over the past few days, security at the borders, airports, as well as train and bus stations, has been dramatically increased. I believe that we are in the clear for now. However, one thing still worries me.

On Wednesday night, I was at a local restaurant with a couple of friends, and CNN was on TV. At one point during the broadcast, the rolling display at the bottom of the screen stated that “the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not detected any outbreak of disease.” As a couple of you may know, I am absolutely fascinated by infectious diseases. This short statement from the CDC sent my mind racing. Immediately the fear of outbreaks was rampant in my mind, but once I thought about it some more, something became obvious.

It is obvious that the attackers are smart (I refrain from calling them terrorists because if the source of the attack originated from within the US, it would no longer be called “terrorism”). They had thought the attack out thoroughly, and the execution, if I can use this word, was nothing short of extraordinary. The only flaws that I can see in their attack was a) attacking (and eventually missing) Camp David and b) their lack of the use of symbolism. Attacking Camp David doesn’t make any sense to me, unless (and I haven’t heard either way) Dubya was at Camp David when the attacks happened. Their lack of the use of symbolism is up for debate. While it is obvious that they wanted to destroy the symbols of free trade and military supremacy (the WTC and the Pentagon, respectively), they either never thought of this, or didn’t see enough bloodshed as a result of it. What I am referring to is an attack on the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty is what symbolizes America. In movies like Independence Day and Planet of the Apes, you see the Statue of Liberty, using symbolism to show the destruction of American hopes and dreams. If the Statue of Liberty went down, so would America as a symbol.

As I was saying earlier, the CDC statement sent my mind racing. What if biological weapons are used? The effects could be devastating. A strain of influenza could sweep across the continent in weeks, and indeed, the world within months. But this ties in with the intellect of the attackers. I believe that we are safe, for now. However, in two or three month’s time, if Bush hasn’t started WWIII, planes will be back up and running as per usual. The “Global Village” will be born again, thus creating the perfect scenario for a pandemic: a global epidemic.

It is known that diseases like HIV/AIDS and influenza are considered to be pandemic. However, the reason that we are not living in airtight bunkers is because of the nature of these diseases. HIV does not kill immediately, and, as some people may or may not know, it is extremely difficult to contract HIV without direct contact with bodily fluids. Even saliva doesn't count here, as it would take about 2.5L of saliva to contain enough HIV virus to infect. So for the time being, people who are careful about who they sleep with and how they do so aren't too worried about HIV/AIDS. Influenza, on the other hand, is a little different. While influenza does kill every year, vaccines are also made for the virus every year. The virus comes out of swine in Southeast Asia into humans, and proceeds west until it hits North America several months later. The reason we don’t fear these types of influenza, commonly called “the flu,” is because vaccines are made by the time that the virus makes it to us. And for the most part, the strains that develop every year aren’t lethal to healthy adults. Anyway, I’m getting off-topic into epidemiology and virology.

Back to the “terrorism.” If a strain of influenza similar to the one that caused the 1918-1919 epidemic were released, the effects would be devastating. It would circle the globe in months. Thousands, if not more, would die. Food sources would dwindle due to reduction in trade and the loss of farmers. Trade could even cease. If the disease became extremely contagious, pockets of “safe zones” could pop up all over the world. These safe zones would be somewhere for those who are uninfected to seclude themselves from those who are sick. Burned out areas surrounding the safe zones would be guarded by flamethrowers capable of incinerating a human body. Anyone trying to enter the safe zone would be killed on sight.

I admit, there is a small hole in my influenza theory. Due to the "advancement" of today's science, a vaccine for influenza can be made readily by a couple of different techniques. However, the making of a vaccine might be hopeless if the virus had infected enough people. Let me put it like this. If you have two rats with an airborne virus in a sealed cage, you aren't too worried about the rest of the rats in the lab becoming infected, as you would just let those two rats die off. [Of course there are ethical considerations involved when dealing with humans, but a quarantine would still be put in effect.] But that's not the way that humans live. Picture several large cages, each containing, say, 20 rats. All the cages are stacked up against a wall in a lab, which is sealed off from the rest of the facility. Now imagine that one rat has just picked up the virus from outside the facility, and it is incubating. That rat becomes sick, infecting numerous other rats, not only in its cage, but in the surrounding cages. Pretty soon, hypothetically speaking about 20 days, all of the rats are dead. Now imagine that a pair of lab techs discovered that the rats were dying, isolated the virus, developed the vaccine and had enough ready by the 10th day. Imagine trying to immunize that many rats. Even if it was possible to immunize that many, think of how many rats were already infected, and therefore the vaccine was useless to them. If something like this were to happen in a human population in a major metropolitan area, the effects would obviously be devastating. Only so much vaccine can be made at a time, and therefore decisions would have to be made as to who received the vaccine and who didn't. This possibility could help lead to the "safe-zone" idea above.

Of course, this is just a worst-case scenario, and here’s hoping it stays that way. But the point is, we don’t realize how weak we truly are until we are challenged. Humans, in all their self-appointed superiority over all else in this world, are far from being at the top of the food chain. Something so small that it can only be seen with an electron microscope can destroy a human body, made of trillions of cells, in a matter of weeks. At first you think you just have a cold, then a headache, and maybe a fever. By that point, it’s already too late, and your body is literally coursing with the virus particle. In most cases, by the time you start to show your first symptoms, you are capable of transmitting the virus to someone else by sneezing, coughing, or various other methods. You could infect one, two, or perhaps dozens of people before you succumb to the disease. But by then, hundreds more are infected. It could be considered somewhat analogous to splitting the atom. One destroys two, two destroys four, and so on. As you can plainly see, the numbers get large very quickly. We are the “most advanced” organisms on the planet, but the most primitive life forms can take us out swiftly. The only thing we can do is hope that it will never happen. It could be two months, it could be two years, and it could be never. Let’s hope it’s never.


Thanks for reading this far. If I confused you at all, don’t feel too bad; I’m sure there’s many more who are just as confused. Feel free to e-mail me at the_kea_os@hotmail.com with your response, as feedback is the best critiquing process.


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