Character Analysis: The Hot Zone By Richard Preston

Evil isn’t the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive as Evil, maybe more so, and it’s a hell of a lot more common. What we really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference.” This passionate quote by Jim Butcher could easily be applied to one of Richard Preston´s most distinguished novels, in which there is no scarcity of irrational and incompetent characters.. In The Hot Zone, Preston illustrates a magnitude of situations in which errors, whether caused by stupidity or by a lack of proper equipment, contribute to the spread of infectious viruses.
Richard Preston describes many situations in which characters lacking intelligence are allowed to be working in delicate medical occupations. When he

Even more significant is it´s chain of infection through the nuns. Preston delves further when he illuminates the segment in which Nurse Mayinga, who had been infected through contact with Sister M.E of the Yambuku hospital, roams the city of Kinshasa and has contact with over three dozen people.. He writes, ¨At any rate, Nurse Mayinga developed a headache and fatigue. She knew she was becoming sick, but she did not want to admit to herself what it was¨(100). When authorities like the World Health Organization and international governments became aware of this, panic ensued. President Mobutu of Zaire dispatched his army to enforce a quarantine around Ngaliema Hospital, which housed Nurse Mayinga, and the Bumba Zone. Soon afterwards, those who had had contact with Mayinga were contained and the calamity passed; Nurse Mayinga infected nobody. Despite this, her traipse through the city ensured that everyone knew just how easily a worldwide plague could be brought about. Prestons immersive descriptions of the aforementioned elucidates that errors in the medical field could clearly be fostered by people whose actions weren’t entirely rational. The author also paints a picture of situations in which a lack of proper medical equipment leads to the spread of diseases. When describing Mr. Yu. G, the first known person with Ebola Sudan, who´s chain of infection traveled throughout south Sudan into a hospital in the town of Maridi, he writes, ¨Apparently the medical staff had been giving patients injections with dirty needles¨(98). This is a prime example of how the error of medical staff can manage to worsen a disaster. Rather than transmitting from person