Still more patients were arriving all the time, displaying the symptoms of radiation sickness. After some debate, the director of the hospital made the decision to distribute to everyone in Pripyat stable iodine—a prophylactic against iodine 131, the radioisotope that represents a particular threat to children. But there weren’t enough iodine pills in the dispensary, and it was imperative that the crisis remain secret. So Esaulov used his Party contacts in the neighboring districts of Chernobyl and Polesia to quietly appeal for help. By nightfall, a total of twenty-three thousand doses of
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