Kilbourne worried about the danger of working with what might be a deadly flu strain. He decided that just he and his lab technician, Barbara Pokorny, would work with the viruses and that they would work in a closed room. The sort of high-tech containment facilities used today for work with deadly viruses were not available in 1976. He told no one except Pokorny what they were doing or the nature of the new viruses. Pokorny told New York Times science reporter Harold Schmeck months later that she kept the pact of silence. “I wouldn’t let anybody in the laboratory,” she said. “They really
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