In order for Jahrling to determine what agent was in the monkeys, he had to mix the monkey culture with blood samples of human victims. The blood samples he used were from Dr. Musoke, Boniface, and Nurse Mayinga, where only Dr. Musoke was a survivor of the virus. Once the monkey and blood samples were mixed, an agent could be determined if one of the certain mixture glows under ultraviolet light. If the mixture didn’t glow then the sample wouldn’t have the target virus. The process of mixing the two samples was tedious requiring Jahrling to “put droplets of cells from the monkey culture onto the slides, letting them dry” (Reston 216) and then putting the blood droplets. Once the mixing was done, Jahrling had to analyze the slides in a closet because the glow would be very faint and total darkness would be necessary. When he finally analyzed them, the only sample that glowed was Mayinga with Ebola Zaire. Jahrling didn’t believe what he saw so he redid everything, making sure he didn’t contaminate anything. Jahrling probably redid everything because he didn’t want to believe there was a chance of him having interacting with Ebola, so he justified it as a contamination until the he did the second test.
As Cassandra states, Jarring had to create a mixture of primate culture and human victim blood samples. If an agent were present, it would that there would be a glow in the sample. This would have to check in “total darkness because the glow would be faint” (Preston, 1994, p.216). If the specimen was glowing it meant that the primates did not “have Marburg” (Preston, 1994, p.217). It meant that the animal had Ebola; it meant that “those animals were dying of Ebola Zaïre” (Preston, 1994, p.217). Like Cassandra state, the scientist was so frightened of his interaction with Ebola that he want to call it a mistake.
In order for Jahrling to determine what agent was in the monkeys, he had to mix the monkey culture with blood samples of human victims. The blood samples he used were from Dr. Musoke, Boniface, and Nurse Mayinga, where only Dr. Musoke was a survivor of the virus. Once the monkey and blood samples were mixed, an agent could be determined if one of the certain mixture glows under ultraviolet light. If the mixture didn’t glow then the sample wouldn’t have the target virus. The process of mixing the two samples was tedious requiring Jahrling to “put droplets of cells from the monkey culture onto the slides, letting them dry” (Reston 216) and then putting the blood droplets. Once the mixing was done, Jahrling had to analyze the slides in a closet because the glow would be very faint and total darkness would be necessary. When he finally analyzed them, the only sample that glowed was Mayinga with Ebola Zaire. Jahrling didn’t believe what he saw so he redid everything, making sure he didn’t contaminate anything. Jahrling probably redid everything because he didn’t want to believe there was a chance of him having interacting with Ebola, so he justified it as a contamination until the he did the second test.
ReplyDeleteAs Cassandra states, Jarring had to create a mixture of primate culture and human victim blood samples. If an agent were present, it would that there would be a glow in the sample. This would have to check in “total darkness because the glow would be faint” (Preston, 1994, p.216). If the specimen was glowing it meant that the primates did not “have Marburg” (Preston, 1994, p.217). It meant that the animal had Ebola; it meant that “those animals were dying of Ebola Zaïre” (Preston, 1994, p.217). Like Cassandra state, the scientist was so frightened of his interaction with Ebola that he want to call it a mistake.
ReplyDelete