The Demon in the Freezer

Richard Preston’s The Demon in the Freezer is a nonfiction account of the recent history of bioweapons and epidemic diseases; his focus for much of the book is smallpox, the “demon” of the title. The book begins with a discussion of the lethal bioweapons attack that took place early in October of 2001. In this instance, letters containing anthrax were mailed to publications and Senate offices in the United States. However, researchers at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infections Diseases (USAMRIID) were worried that the anthrax envelopes might contain smallpox as well, a virus that could prove much more deadly than anthrax bacteria.

Preston then shifts his focus to the eradication of smallpox, an effort that consumed scientists and fieldworkers around the globe. Though a series of deadly smallpox cases erupted in Germany in the early 1970s, smallpox eradicators succeeded in containing the damage from the disease and—under the guidance of D.A. Henderson—driving smallpox from its possible strongholds in Asia. The final naturally occurring case of the virus arose in 1977. Officially, smallpox traces are preserved in only two locations—one laboratory freezer facility in the United States and a second in Russia. It is impossible to say, however, whether other countries have clandestine smallpox samples.

The existence of stocks of smallpox has been a source of controversy in the decades since 1977. In the 1990s, it became clear that the Russians had developed a bioweapons program using long-range missiles that could deliver smallpox payloads. For researchers and public professionals, the question soon became whether to eradicate the smallpox stocks or whether to perform new research in order to keep the public safe. D.A. Henderson emerged as a proponent of the first approach, believing that the destruction of extant smallpox would send a message of cooperation and caution. Peter Jahrling, a talented USAMRIID researcher, emerged as a proponent of the second. Together with a team that included one of the rising stars at the Institute, Lisa Hensley, Jahrling succeeded in infecting lab monkeys with smallpox—even though strains of “pox” are species-specific and smallpox targets humans.

As Preston explains in the final stages of The Demon in the Freezer, the anthrax attack of 2001 did not in fact involve smallpox. Yet, smallpox is still a very real threat. The disease itself is easy to modify, and a re-tooled version of smallpox could have the power to break through formerly effective vaccination and quarantine methods. Whether Preston’s demon will ever unleash a new form of destruction or will stay in its freezer indefinitely depends not on new and improved science—only the better impulses in human nature can prevent a future smallpox crisis.