Another co-discoverer of the Ebola virus along with Dr. Frederick Murphy, Johnson was a virus hunter who ran the Special Pathogens Branch of the CDC. He also helped research and combat the virus when it appeared in Zaire and Sudan, heading up a team of doctors from the World Health Organization. He is a famous figure in the world of virus hunting, and has discovered some of the most dangerous diseases on the planet. Unlike many other researchers, he finds Ebola beautiful as well as terrifying, and even speculates that a virus wiping out most of the human race might not be an altogether negative thing.
Dr. Karl Johnson Quotes in The Hot Zone
The The Hot Zone quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Karl Johnson or refer to Dr. Karl Johnson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1, Chapter 7
Quotes
Mr. Preston: Unless you include the feeling generated by gazing into the eyes of a waving confrontational cobra, “fascination” is not what I feel about Ebola. How about shit scared?
Related Characters:Dr. Karl Johnson (speaker), Richard Preston
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
90
Explanation and Analysis:
Richard Preston seeks out Dr. Karl Johnson, one of the leading experts in Ebola. A virus hunter for the CDC during the Ebola outbreak in Zaire, Johnson was the first scientist to isolate an Ebola virus particle, and thus earned the right to name the disease. Now retired, he writes to Preston to explain his feelings about Ebola, describing himself as “shit scared” of the virus. It is also fascinating, however, that he describes Ebola as a “confrontational cobra.” Although Ebola is not a thinking predator the way a cobra is, it does seem to have the same menacing quality Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus vol
Get the entire The Hot Zone LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Dr. Karl Johnson Character Timeline in The Hot Zone
The timeline below shows where the character Dr. Karl Johnson appears in The Hot Zone. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 7: Ebola River
...this effort is called the Special Pathogens Branch, and in 1976, it was run by Dr. Karl M. Johnson , a virus hunter who had spent many years researching in Central and South America....
(full context)
...box was “sticky with blood.” The virologist in charge, Patricia Webb (who was married to Karl Johnson at the time), put on gloves to handle the blood and managed to collect a...
(full context)
Karl Johnson is now a fly-fishing aficionado in Montana, who does a great deal of consulting work...
(full context)
Two days after discovering Ebola, Karl Johnson headed to Africa with two other C.D.C. doctors in an effort to stop the virus...
(full context)
Preston visits Karl Johnson and the two go fly-fishing together. Johnson discusses his trip to Kinshasa, and the panic...
(full context)
A C.D.C. doctor named Joel Breman, who had come with Karl Johnson to Zaire, was tasked with travelling to the Bumba Zone, along with a team from...
(full context)
...had already peaked, and that it had begun at the hospital. He tried to contact Karl Johnson , but was unable to. Eventually they traveled back to the edge of the Bumba...
(full context)
...thirty-seven people who had encountered Mayinga while she was infected, and quarantined all of them. Karl Johnson , meanwhile, had heard nothing from the doctors in Bumba, and assumed that they were...
(full context)