The Hot Zone
Alyssa Nilles-Pacleb, Questions 16-20
16. DESCRIBE THE ROLES PLAYED BY THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE IN THE HOT ZONE, AND EXPLAIN, IF IN YOUR OPINION, THEY ACTED RESPONSIBLY.
a. Dan Dalgard (head of the Monkey Quarantine Facility)
- Dalgard was irresponsible because he documented occurrences during the outbreak for later use, but he didn't take action to help his workers.
b. C.J. Peters (Director of USARMIID)
- Peters was in charge of keeping the public calm, but by doing this, he did not allow the public to know what was happening. This is irresponsible because
c. Nancy Jaxx (Veterinarian with cut palm exposed to monkey blood in level 4)
- Jaaxx was in charge of dissecting dead monkeys after they died to find their cause of death. She only used a bandaid to cover the cut on her hand, but thanks to the latex glove she was wearing, the malfunction of her external personal protective equipment did not end her life. She did the right thing to leave immediately and test to see if her glove was sealed by filling it with water.
d. Jerry Jaxx (responsible for monkey euthanasia)
- He was responsible because he checked his workers and made sure they were not ill before sending them to work
e. Nurse Mayinga (who in seeking treatment potentially exposed many people to her strain of Ebola)
- Nurse Mayinga was a person who did not accept that fact that she was infected even as she began to show early signs of Ebola. Infected, she traveled around her town infecting others and dies from a heart attack caused by the virus. She was very irresponsible for not only denying her own sickness, but for passing it on.
f. Researchers Peter Jahrling and Tom Geisbert (who whiffed the monkey tissue and chose not to disclose the information.
- These men are complete and utter idiots. Who in their right minds would smell Ebola. After doing this, they did not tell anyone like the imbeciles they were. Lmbo scientists my butt.
17. SHOULD THE PUBLIC BE NOTIFIED OF POTENTIAL RISKS AND DANGERS? AT WHAT POINT IN THE STORY SHOULD HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT HAVE BEEN MADE?
The public should be allowed to know about the threat of a massive danger such as disease because it is a right to know what could possibly kill yourself or a loved one. An example of when this happens in the book is when Jaax discovers a new strain of Ebola and the US Army as well as the CDC decides to keep this a secret from the population.
18. WHAT ARE THE JUSTIFICATIONS FOR IMPORTING PRIMATES TO THE UNITED STATES FOR RESEARCH? WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE RISKS AND BENEFITS?
Sending monkeys to the United States for research should not be feared with proper safety guidelines and equipment. There are many pros with ability to research monkeys in America using the first class technology and trained personnel, but there are many cons as well because of negligent people and lack of education of Ebola.
19. HOW MIGHT DR. SHEM MUSOKE HAVE CONTRACTED THE VIRUS? HOW MIGHT THE OTHERS WHO ASSISTED IN THE CARE OF CHARLES MONET HAVE AVOIDED INFECTION?
From the first few paragraphs where Dr. Musoke is introduced, it is clear as to why he contracted the virus. While Monet is wheeled in, Dr. Musoke is hovering over Monet with little to no personal protective equipment and Dr. Musoke is vomited on. The vomit comes in contact with his skin, eyes, nose, and ears. Dr. Musoke is also touching Monet with no regard for his own safety and he contracts the virus easily from Monet. The other workers may not have contracted it so easily because they weren't swimming in Marburg vomit juices.
20. ON PAGE 185, PETER JARHLING AND TOM GIESBERT "WHIFFED" THE CULTURE FLASK. WHY? WHAT'S SO DANGEROUS ABOUT THIS?
Well, if Mr. Jarhling and Mr. Giesbert retained any knowledge from their elementary science classes, they would know THAT "WHIFFING" IS BAD YOU HAVE TO WAFT IT. What's so wrong with sniffing the flask FULL OF A VIRUS THEY KNOW LITTLE ABOUT? A LOT. They did not know if the disease was transmittable through air and the fact that they even dared to directly smell the culture makes me question the difficulty of getting a degree as a scientist.