It's been a long time since I've read Preston's book the Hot Zone but I remember being scared sleepless by his book. More so when I realized that I frequently visited the office park where the Hazelton Lab was located, just a couple years before the event took place. The mini series makes the lab out to be a cavernous old 30's era industrial building. It was actually a one story office park building from the early 70's. There was a central parking lot surrounded on 4 sides by a variety of small businesses renting space in the office park , including the printing company I visited on a regular basis. It's the banality of the office park setting that chilled me when I read the book and it scares me still. It was not a fenced off derelict building, people came and went right outside the front door of the lab every single day.
When they cleaned that lab out, they didn't seal off the whole area - they did it at night and on weekends. There were probably people working in some of those other buildings on late shifts.
They got lucky they caught it in time. That virus is called Ebola-Reston. It could have been Reston - the town that Ebola killed.
That said - I thought the series caught the fear, claustrophobia and exhaustion of the HAZMAT Team. Also, how inter agency competition was making the problem worse not better. The kids playing next door are a tired trope, how about a Mom in a station wagon dropping off her PTA newsletter for printing? that probably really happened.
Read the book and be prepared to have some sleepless nights.
That said - I thought the series caught the fear, claustrophobia and exhaustion of the HAZMAT Team. Also, how inter agency competition was making the problem worse not better. The kids playing next door are a tired trope, how about a Mom in a station wagon dropping off her PTA newsletter for printing? that probably really happened.
Read the book and be prepared to have some sleepless nights.