Theme Of Demon In The Freezer

In The book “The Demon In the Freezer” by Richard Preston is a bioterrorism theme, in particular about humanity up against smallpox. Preston expands upon the theme by giving a detailed narrative about the hardship and struggle forced upon the government and its public. In many instances, Preston uses the rhetorical appeal in logos to reinforce this paranoia and fear behind the biological weapon agents smallpox and anthrax to remind us all how destructive and gruesome its effects can be individuals. Preston also describes the hypothetical spread of smallpox and uses reasoning to enforce his purpose in order make us critically think about these alarming outcomes of this theoretical bioterrorism. For instance,“Most experts believe that the multiplier of smallpox in the modern world – a world of shopping malls, urban centers, busy international airports, tourism, cities and nations with highly mobile populations, and above all nearly no immunity to smallpox- would be somewhere between three and twenty.

If it has a multiplier of something between five and twenty, it will likely spread explosively, because five or fifteen or twenty multiplied by itself every two weeks or so can get the world to millions of smallpox cases in a few months, absent effective control. The outbreak grows not in a straight line but in an exponential rise, expanding at a faster and faster rate.” (Preston 47 & 48) After reading this you’d be quite surprised that if this were to happen, it would be excruciating and hard to get rid of. Based on these calculations it leaves ideas that if bioterrorism were to ever be used, we would have to put up a strong combat against it. Given this hypothetical reasoning, it serves towards Preston’s purpose that makes us all think about how devastating the circumstances of