"Sonny Whitelaw - Rgesus Factor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Whitelaw Sonny)

three percent of volunteer blood donors are infected with it. The virus is ubiquitous. In another
PCR-improved study by Japanese researchers, TTV was detected in ninety two percent of the
general population ... There are a lot of healthy people carrying the virus (Mushahwar says)
which raises the question: тАШWhat are these viruses doing in humans and not causing disease?'

тАФLeslie Pray: The Mysterious TT VirusтАФWhat Is It? The Scientist 15[15]:22 July 23, 2001

In Washington DC, Presidential Science Advisor Jean Simmons was in her White House office,
preparing to leave for a panicky heads of state meeting, following a forum that had achieved nothing, but
scared everyone. Jean wished she could go home, call in sick, and sleep.

She felt sick all right, sick of heart. But people in her position did not take sick leave for something so
mundane as a divorce. Jean had to keep reminding herself how many others in the White House were
currently тАШnegotiating marriage dissolutions'. They came to work every day, smiled, planned, plotted,
connived, back-stabbed and played the ugliest, most addictive game on the planet without thinking twice
about being publicly declared unfit spouses. In fact, most of them wore it as a badge of honour, a
declaration of their sacrifice in support of the administration. How noble.

Opening her compact mirror to freshen her lipstick, she examined her tired face. How many of them had
to deal with their husbands having an affair with a boy twenty years his junior? Not only had she failed as
a wife, she had failed as a woman. Jean tucked a wayward lock of burgundy hair behind her ear,
snapped the compact closed and slipped it into her pocket. She picked up her copy of the Kamchatka
Statement and dropped it into her briefcase. The issues it dealt with trivialized her personal problems; for
it was an admission that the world's last superpower was finally being humbledтАФby an ocean current.

Jean went to shut down her computer, but the desktop file on Kristin Baker stared at her accusingly. She
attached it to an email then added as an after-thought, тАШThis was the State Department's idea, not mine,тАЩ
and sent a copy to Commander Nicholas Page.

Her office door opened in a flurry of waving papers and angry voices. Straightening her cream-coloured
jacket, Jean pasted a concerned look on her face when the Director of the CDC, Andreas Clem, strode
in.

'I'm telling you, Jack,тАЩ Clem was saying to the short, obese man trailing behind him. тАШThe President better
be informed before he leaves because the implications are already trickling out on the Internet. It won't
be long before some science journalist comes up with a very realistic prognosis.'

Jack Obermann, the Assistant Secretary of Health, snapped, тАШThere's enough apocalyptic garbage being
bandied about in Kamchatka without you adding to the hysteria.'

Both men seemed oblivious to Jean's presence.

'Hysteria,тАЩ Clem said flatly and glared at Obermann. тАШYou'll know all about hysteria once this hits the
wire services! Dammit, you've got this bureaucratic id├йe fixe that the CDC's mandate is to react to rather
than prevent epidemics! Hell, during the тАШ11 cholera epidemic, the government spent more money and
resources on congressional finger pointing than containing the outbreak!

'So here we are again,тАЩ he added, tossing his hands in the air. тАШYou stuck your damned heads in the sand
and hoped it would go away. Well it hasn't! Jean!тАЩ Clem finally turned to her. тАШYou tell him!'
Jean walked around her desk, shutting her briefcase as she went. тАШTell him what, Andreas? That Earth's