Quote: "The earth is attempting to rid itself of an infection by human parasite", unquote, author Richard Preston, The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus, (1994).
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1976
It was a hot summer's night in Washington, DC, when it happened. You could sense the rising tension; you could smell the fear.
Christmas was coming to America.
Santa Claus had been on notice: Get ready for the holidays; get ready...And then the Manager cancelled Christmas because of the Ebola threat was in the air.
And Santa Claus knew, deep in his hearty, beating, heart, that all of the kids, (and parents), wouldn't be happy...because Santa was gone from the shopping malls...And the festive season of 1976 came and went into the darkness...and a gloom set in...and remained steady for the rest of the year...
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January, 1977
President Ford handled the news like a dignified man.
The heat from 1971's Pentagon Papers wasn't gone. Nor Watergate. It became a festering sore in The White House; it was still festering.
And, when he heard about a new wave of disease, he looked at the TV...and shuddered. "I want everyone to make sure they're protected in suits", he declared to his staff.
And US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger watched the color TV screens with his wide-rimmed glasses...and said:
"Mister President, I'll call for an energency emergency. With Casper Weinberger gone since '75, I'll call David".
And he let the President deal with the impending poltical, socio-economic, and health crisis that was gripping the country faster than the plague of 1348 in The Middle Ages did.
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F. David Mathews was talking to US Secretary of Defense Donald W. Rumsfield. Rumsfield, who took over from James R. Schlesinger, wanted to dig further into the issue. His eyes focused on the freezing morning in Washington, DC; he was jesting with Mathews.
And, for all of the jovity, the real aspect of his self, increased the state of play. In other words, all deep divisions in the President's Cabinet, was fused by a notion that, two years after Vietnam had had finished in 1975...a new kind of system of Republican versus Democratic rule devolved a notion of inherent...if, formulaic, distrust of the President's ways.
But they kept their thoughts closed.
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President Ford was concerned.
"Mister President", said William E. Simon, the US Secretary of the Treasury, "...do we have enough money to prevent an Ebola threat? Hell, we're on the verge of Middle Eastern terrorism between Isreal and Palestine; hell, the IRA are bombing England in the UK? And, we're not going to know whether we have more money by the time 1978 comes around", he added.
"We will keep the CDC informed. And notify all hospitals. And tell the FBI, CIA, the Secret Service, and my Cabinet...not to mess up this time".
And he let him digest what he said...And headed through the regal looking hallway, past the expensive doors of The White House, and sat down in the President's chair...as the American flags stood at at attention inside the spacious room.
~~~
Page 2.
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Ebola
Non-FictionThe true story of the Ebola virus that was first seen in 1976...And how, 40 years' on, we haven't gotten rid of the most virulent disease in our times. The new Non-Fiction book by Robert Helliger. Warning: It is rated PG-13 for some violence, some c...
