The End of October

by Lawrence Wright

800 million viruses were deposited every day on every single meter of the earth’s surface. Most of these viruses preyed on bacteria, not humans. The total number of viruses on the planet was estimated to be a hundred million times more than the number of stars in the universe.

DISEASES HAVE A history of stirring up conspiracies. Jews were held responsible for the Black Plague in the fourteenth century, and they were massacred in hundreds of European cities, including two thousand Jews burned alive in Strasbourg, France, on Valentine’s Day, 1349.

Then Jürgen made a remark that Henry never forgot: “In the battle of man versus nature, I am not on our side,” Jürgen said. “I am a traitor to my kind.”