Although a civilian, Gene Johnson runs the Ebola research division of USAMRIID. He has traveled the world studying rare and deadly viruses, and has a reputation for being brilliant but unconventional. His immense knowledge of diseases such as Ebola has instilled within him a deep fear of them. Despite the fact that he has terrifying nightmares about Ebola, one of Johnson’s most powerful wishes is to find the ultimate source of the disease. In an effort to do so, he headed an expedition to Kitum Cave, but was unable to find the virus’s host organism.
Eugene (Gene) Johnson Quotes in The Hot Zone
The The Hot Zone quotes below are all either spoken by Eugene (Gene) Johnson or refer to Eugene (Gene) 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 8
Quotes
Gene felt a prickling sensation on his scalp. The paths of Charles Monet and Peter Cardinal had crossed at only one place on earth, and that was inside Kitum Cave. What had they done in the cave? What had they found in there? What had they touched? What had they breathed? What lived in Kitum Cave?
Related Characters:
Richard Preston (speaker), Eugene (Gene) Johnson (speaker), Charles Monet, Peter Cardinal
Related Symbols:
Mount Elgon and Kitum Cave
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Eugene (Gene) Johnson Character Timeline in The Hot Zone
The timeline below shows where the character Eugene (Gene) Johnson appears in The Hot Zone. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 5: Project Ebola
...negative air pressure to keep diseases from leaking into the air. A civilian scientist named Eugene Johnson , an expert on Ebola and Marburg, leads the Institute’s research of Ebola. He has...
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...Institute fear Ebola, and many consider its study to be potentially lethal work. Eugene Johnson (Gene), appropriately, has a reputation (both within USAMRIID and without) for being wild, even fearless. He...
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...theory of microbreaks, Preston introduces the worry that Ebola will one day become an epidemic. Gene Johnson calls Ebola “unpredictable,” since we have no way of knowing whether it will one...
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We learn about Gene Johnson’s Ebola experiment, in which he attempts to cure monkeys infected with the disease. Since...
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Nancy Jaax, meanwhile, has volunteered to work on Gene Johnson’s Ebola experiment in order to prove herself capable and brave. Various sexist critics within...
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Part 1, Chapter 6: Total Immersion
Gene Johnson, we learn, has been injecting Mayinga’s blood into the monkeys, and then attempting to...
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Preston relates that Gene Johnson’s Ebola experiments were unsuccessful because he was never able to find drugs that had...
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Part 1, Chapter 8: Cardinal
In September 1987, Gene Johnson receives a mysterious package from Kenya containing blood from a 10-year-old Danish boy named...
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Back in USAMRIID, Gene Johnson puts Peter Cardinal’s blood into a vial full of monkey cells in order to...
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Part 1, Chapter 9: Going Deep
Preston visits Gene Johnson near Fort Detrick. The scientist recounts his discovery that Peter Cardinal and Charles Monet...
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The year before Peter Cardinal’s death, in 1986, Gene Johnson had infected monkeys through their lungs with Marburg and Ebola, meaning that if the...
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...the expedition finds not a hint of Marburg virus within the cave—a terrible disappointment for Gene Johnson. Despite the apparent waste of the expedition, however, Preston suggests that Johnson’s knowledge and...
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Part 2, Chapter 6: The First Angel
...to Peter Jahrling’s office with them. On the way, he passes the chaotic office of Gene Johnson, before reaching Jahrling’s sunny office filled with pictures drawn by his children. Showing Jahrling...
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Part 2, Chapter 8: Chain of Command
...of USAMRIID, and an expert on biohazards. Upon hearing the news, Colonel Huxsoll telephones Major General Philip K. Russell, MD, the commander of the United States Army Medical Research and Development...
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...the same time, the Army does have more manpower and ability than the C.D.C. does. General Russell asserts that this operation will function best if it is staffed by soldiers, because...
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General Russell adds that they need to contact Frederick A. Murphy, the director of the National...
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Part 2, Chapter 9: Garbage Bags
Later in the morning, C. J. Peters, Nancy Jaax, and Gene Johnson head out to Virginia, where they meet Dan Dalgard at the Hazleton office. He...
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Nancy Jaax, Gene Johnson, and C. J. Peters drive to the gas station and wait. As they do...
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Sitting next to C. J. Peters, Gene Johnson thinks about Kitum Cave. He is terrified that someone is going to die because...
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Preston explains the complicated and difficult relationship between C. J. Peters and Gene Johnson, who went on an unsuccessful expedition together in central Africa looking for Ebola virus,...
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...He shows the Army team seven double bags filled with monkey corpses. Peters, Nancy, and Gene are horrified by the possibility of contamination, and Nancy refuses to put the corpses into...
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Part 2, Chapter 11: Shoot-Out
...monkeys, C. J. Peters runs a huge meeting in the conference room of Fort Detrick. General Russell sits in to chair the meeting, hoping to keep it from turning into a...
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...history of conflict between the Army and Joe McCormick, who had in the past criticized Gene Johnson for spending money studying Kitum Cave without publishing his findings. McCormick also feels that...
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...both the monkey corpses and the virus. Fred Murphy urges McCormick to cool down, while General Russell steps in, suggesting that the Army and the C.D.C. split management. Eventually they come...
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Part 2, Chapter 12: The Mission
Jerry then visits Gene Johnson in order to map out a plan. They set up a series of priorities:...
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Part 2, Chapter 13: Reconaissance
Gene Johnson, meanwhile, heads out with Sergeant Klages to the monkey house in order to understand...
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Exploring the building, Gene realizes that he can get to Room H through a series of abandoned offices, so...
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Part 3, Chapter 1: Insertion
...Jaax gets up and puts on civilian clothes in order to head to the Institute. Gene Johnson is already there with his gear from Kitum Cave: spacesuits, rubber gloves, needles, dissection...
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...unload, they hear the shouts of children at a nearby day-care center. Jerry Jaax and Gene Johnson decide to have their team put spacesuits on inside the building so that television...
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...left, Jerry counts sixty-five more monkeys in the room. He uses a special device that Gene Johnson brought back from Africa to inject them: a pole with a socket on the...
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Part 3, Chapter 3: Tangos
...rejects. Dalgard and Peters work together to develop a written agreement, which Peters carries to General Russell. They sign it without consulting lawyers and fax it back to Dalgard.
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The soldiers spend an uneasy night, as does Gene Johnson, who is worried about the “kids.” He recalls when he stuck himself with a...
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With Nancy still asleep, Jerry Jaax leaves home at 4 AM and meets Gene Johnson, and together they go over Gene’s script. Soldiers begin to show up, and Jerry...
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Gene Johnson begins calling out soldiers’ names. Next up is eighteen-year-old Private First Class Charlotte Godwin,...
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Part 3, Chapter 4: Inside
...breaks in order to keep fatal errors from happening, but no one wants to leave. Gene Johnson stays outside the monkey house, in radio contact with those within it. Then the...
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A television van appears on the side of the building where Gene is stationed. Gene sends a sergeant in to inspect Rhonda and Charlotte, and the man...
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Meanwhile Charlotte and Rhonda wait in the van until Gene gives them the all-clear. They walk to the woods near the building, and find two...
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Part 3, Chapter 5: A Bad Day
...and soon it is tracking blood throughout the room. Jerry gets on the radio with Gene Johnson, who tells him to “do whatever had to be done.” They contemplate shooting the...
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Part 3, Chapter 6: Decon
...escapee, finally catching it behind a cage with the help of Sergeant Amen. They radio Gene to let him know, and Jerry orders Sergeant Klages to explore the rest of the...
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The 91-Tangoes leave the building exhausted and sweat-soaked. They have collected 3,500 samples. Gene Johnson, is exhausted as well, still wondering whether everyone on the operation is indeed safe...
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Part 4, Chapter 2: Camp
...being careful. Okuku states that he’s heard of the virus, and references the work that Gene Johnson and his team did at Kitum Cave. Preston puts his respirator on his head...
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