The End of October

by Lawrence Wright

Like so many dangerous things in nature, influenza viruses were beautiful, covered with protein spikes called hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N), which functioned like a pirate boarding party. The hemagglutinin fastened onto a cell like a grappling hook and plunged viral particles into the cell. Once inside, the virus used the cell’s energy to replicate itself thousands of times. As the newly hatched viruses budded from the cell, the neuraminidase protein cut them loose. Within a few hours of exposure, the victim became infectious, releasing half a million virus particles into the air with every cough or sneeze. The particles floated into the lungs of people nearby, or landed on surfaces, where they could survive for hours at a time.

Pigs were often blamed for being virus factories because they were an almost perfect bridge between avian influenzas and human diseases. Once inside a pig, the virus adapted itself to mammals and, having breached the species barrier, was ready to conquer the world.

Putin openly declared that Russia was developing “genetic” weapons that would be “comparable to nuclear weapons.”

“There will be runs on the stores. Pharmaceuticals, groceries, batteries, gas, guns, you name it. Hospitals will be overwhelmed, not just with sick people but with the worried well.

sports and entertainment facilities shuttered, nonemergency cases discharged from hospitals, schools closed, public meetings postponed, and the government shut down.

Governments would fall. Economies would collapse. Wars would arise. Why did we think that our own modern era was immune to the assault of humanity’s most cunning and relentless enemy, the microbe?

habibi,” he said, using the Arab term of endearment.

Studies of sex workers in Nairobi showed that some prostitutes were naturally immune to HIV.

it may have been a mutation of the CCR5 gene, which was required for the virus to invade the cell. These were interesting discoveries, but so far they had never led to a vaccine or a treatment for any of the diseases.

“We can’t guarantee the safety or effectiveness of any of them right now. And every person is different, with different levels of immunity. The correct dosage is unknown.”

We will change the ways wars are fought, Jürgen said. Not by conventional weapons or nuclear bombs, but by germs and viruses and toxins.

“I believe in heaven. I think it’s in our dreams.” “What do you mean?” “It’s like we already have all these people and experiences in our lives, then in our dreams we rearrange everything, and have new experiences, and sometimes we meet new people, and we go on great adventures, and that’s like heaven, and sometimes bad things happen or nightmares, and that’s like hell. I mean, why do we have to think that heaven is a place we can go only when we die? What if we have half our life awake on earth and then half in heaven, and then eventually it’s all in heaven and that’s when we’re dead?”

We believers say that we are good because we believe, but the nonbelievers I meet are good people, most of them, just like Muslims and Christians and Jews. So I wonder what difference it makes to believe or not to believe.” “A friend of mine once said that when good people do good, and evil people do evil, it is not surprising. But when good people do evil, it takes religion to do that.”

researchers learned that the rate of disease transmission dropped as heat and humidity increased. When the temperature reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit, there was no transmission at all.

Without the sun’s ultraviolet rays, the body doesn’t produce vitamin D, which in turn limits the number of white blood cells available to fight infection.

dietary sources of vitamin D, featuring egg yolks, tuna, fortified soy milk, and beef liver.

“That’s what influenza does. We don’t know why exactly. So far, this pandemic has resembled the pattern of the 1918 Spanish flu, and if that continues, we predict the second wave to be much worse than the first. It’s now been seeded everywhere on earth.