Ok..I'm going to be Re:reing:re......

   I'm a little puzzled at the timing. Please make it clearer as to
what is
happening when.
   For example, in the second extract, when he thinks "How could I be
so
stupid?", what is he referring to?  The answer depends on when this is

occurring.

He is referring to the state he is in. And how this situation occurred.
(He really didn't want any of this standoff to happen) He was just
foolish. But, when  he sees his wife he looses that judgment  once
again.

  Also, FBI and SWAT do not allow crowds to gather near a standoff
scene,
and in a situation like this, they would have gone door-to-door
removing
the neighbors and cordoning off at least the block (I once lived in an

complex where a hostage crisis occurred, so I got to see this).

Well, When I meant "Crowd" I was referring to the ever present FBI
agents. Not regular civilians. I'll elaborate that better when the story
is done.

  If you are going to elaborate on the disease process, at least try
to
make it sound believable.  Viruses do not attack pollutants.  Viruses
attack cells.  They take them over and cause them to produce more
viruses,
destroying the cell in the process.  Other ways that a virus can
affect
people is if it provokes an immune response that damages the body (I
believe that juvenile diabetes is now thought to be a condition which
is
hereditary but only becomes active triggered by certain viruses).
Also,
and this is the most devious, the DNA of a cell can be changed by the
viral
DNA but the cell is not taken over and killed by reproducing viruses.
Anyone out there with a better knowledge of virology, please correct
me if
I'm wrong.

Well you see. This isn't a real Virus. (I leave these subtle hints in
the entire story, and it doesn't act like a virus at all. It has it's
own person behavior. Technology at work for you. (You can now see what
your tax dollars are doing!) I know Viruses don't attack pollutants. But
what's to say a man made specimen wouldn't? Not really a virus, but
something more.

  Actually, it was before the modern medicine that people worried
about
epidemics.  Does the Black Plague ring a bell?

Yes it does. End of point.

  As far as the rest, if the world knew about the virus, they would
isolate
and screen people arriving from the US.  They only need to be isolated
2-3
days.  If they are still healthy, then they don't have the disease.
There
would even be travel restrictions within the US, not to mention a
large
outbreak of paranoia and xenophobia.  Once the news of the disease and
its
symptoms are made public, I don't think that people would saying "Oh,
it's
just a flu" whan they see someone wheezing and coughing.  Peoples'
inclination would be to assume that the person may have the deadly
virus.
 Governments and international health organizations have considered
what to
do in case of an outbreak of somehing like Ebola, especially since
they
discovered an airborne form of Ebola, a strain that fortunately did
not
affect humans.

Good point. I still like going with the idea around "The Stand", not
because of obvious reasons..but that it was man made. Unpredictability.
It's most likely a disease that wipes out the earth, and we will
eventually have to start over.


-Scott.

dml