USAMRIID

Platt took over the small conference room next door to his office. He made a pot of coffee and ate an apple he found in his desk drawer. He started retrieving, sorting and compiling information. In no time he had the contents of file folders spilled across the tabletop. On his laptop computer he accessed documents, browsed and read and printed out pages that went into a separate stack. And on a legal pad he scrawled a series of lists and notes.

On one page he jotted bits and pieces about Ebola Zaire.

The symptoms:

 

First stage (within 1–2 days of infection) :
fever, severe headache, sore throat, muscle aches, weakness, nosebleed.

 

Next stage (within a week, as little as 3 days) :
vomiting, abdominal pain, jaundice, diarrhea, conjunctivitis (red eyes).

 

Final stage (7–21 days) :
tissue destruction, organ failure, massive hemorrhaging, shock, respiratory arrest, death.

 

On a separate pile was everything he could find about the vaccine, including a copy of the original report that first appeared in the Journal Public Library of Science Pathogens, January 2007. The research team that developed the vaccine had been from Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and USAMRIID, right here at Fort Detrick.

On another page he scribbled pieces about the vaccine:

Most effective when giving injections in a series (comparable to rabies shots)

Administered after infection within 30 minutes—90% survival rate.

24 hours after infection—50% survival rate.

 

Administered before infection—potential for the vaccine to protect but unproven to date.

 

Tests to date all performed on macaque monkeys. Human trials limited. Not enough data to establish survival rates.

 

Not approved by the FDA.

 

Would require an emergency “compassionate use” permit.

 

Platt underlined “compassionate use.” He wouldn’t have time to make an argument to the FDA, but as part of a military research facility he would try to find an exception. He’d do whatever it took. Janklow had said that there were sacrifices that often had to be made in war zones and in hot zones. The same was true about exceptions.

He remembered Afghanistan and a makeshift medical facility in the back of a truck. Every time they came under fire the protocol was to move, get the hell out, but in the middle of an amputation no way could you rumble to safety. So you sat in the line of fire, trying to keep the soldier on the gurney from bleeding to death and hoping all of you didn’t get blown apart.

No one ever questioned breaking protocol. You did what you had to do under special circumstances. Protect and serve. You certainly didn’t leave a soldier behind to bleed to death and you didn’t stand back and watch while four people under your care crashed.

In a short time, Platt was finished. He packed up what he needed, left the mess in the conference room to clean up later, locking the door behind him. Then he headed back up to the labs, the confidence back in his stride. As the head of the facility he required no other signature but his own. He didn’t need Janklow. He didn’t needed McCathy. All he needed now was the vaccine.