The Cobra Event by Richard Preston is a worthwhile book to read indeed, but it will scare the be-Jesus out of you also.
This is quite a heavy book to read and if you are an intellectual type of person, then it should frighten you.
Having also read the book; Germs and many other similar books and having kept up to date on recent scientific findings, I realize how serious and realistic this book is.
Biological human distributed pathogens are real and we must indeed make sure we keep these biological scientists who consider using these things on mass population bases at bay and prevent them from ruining life on Earth as we know it.
The United States of America may indeed have a missile defense system, but unless we have a way to detect and protect the American people from such dastardly deeds such as is described in Cobra Event we will be sorry.
It is time for all of America to wake up and realize, how important it is to pay attention to where all these scientists who practice this line of work are and exactly what they are doing now, for whom and why.
Additionally we need to consider all the nations, which are experimenting and trying to perfect such bio weapons.
Indeed, this book is intense, it is realistic and it scared the .
.
.
out of me.
Perhaps some reading it may not be scared, but if you have half a brain you will have to really stop and think about how serious these issues are.
Read the book and see for your self and consider all this in 2006.