DAY NINETY:Dec. 9:
I am in Virginia today, speaking at a National Cancer Institute conference on drug resistant viruses, chiefly HIV. As such, I haven't much to say about New York City.
There was a global moment today, however, in tribute to New York, to the crew and passengers on the plane that crashed on September 11 in Pennsylvania and to those who perished in the Pentagon. The crew of the Space Shuttle docked with the crew of the Space Station, and jointly sent a message to Earth about September 11. Shuttle Capt. Dom Gorie said that aboard the spacecraft were flags and mementos from the families of those who perished, as well as the flag that flew atop the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 an miraculously survived. All the articles, Gorie said, would be brought back to Earth and returned, having orbited hundreds of times.
Russian astronaut Yuri Onufrienko said the whole world should cooperate. And then Space Station Commander Frank Culbertson, bobbing in the zero G atmosphere, recounted that he had been circling Earth for months, and was in the Space Station on September 11th. "We looked down and we could see New York City, under attack," Culbertson said. "All of us were affected by it that day."
Tonight I heard myself telling the retrovirologists that they had to think outside their laboratories, beyond the protease inhibitors and enzymes, past reverse transcriptase. I babbled about the World Trade Center, anthrax, bioterrorism and the social context of disease. I don't know if the scientists liked what I had to say, but I needed to say it.
Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett
