The Cobra Event

The Cobra Event is a 1998 bio-thriller novel by Richard Preston describing a terror attempt on the United States by a man known only as Archimedes. Archimedes is the creator of a virus that mixes the incurable common cold with one of the world's most deadly diseases, smallpox. The virus is a Biosafety Level 4 hot agent (because it is human lethal).

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Plot summary

The book is divided into six sections. The first section, named "Trial", tells of teenage girl named Kate Moran who violently dies one day in school. The next section titled "1969", explains many tests done in the sixties by the U.S. government involving certain viruses. The third section, "Diagnosis", describes the autopsy of Kate Moran and also introduces many key characters such as Dr. Alice Austen, Mark Littleberry, and Will Hopkins. The book continues on the other three sections, "Decision", "Reachdeep", and "The Operation", describe these three characters' journey to discover the producer of the lethal virus Cobra.

Impact of the book

According to the British sociologist Frank Furedi the novel had a great impact on the Clinton administration. He stated in a book published in 2007, called Invitation to Terror, that Bill Clinton and many of his security advisers were deeply impressed by the terrorist scenario's recounted in the book and that they tried to use the book in order to enhance American anti-terrorist politics^[1].