Epidemiologists across the world were on the edge of their seats, and yet Indonesia jealously clung to the microbes, arguing that the disease was a national resource, like gold or oil. Minister Siti called her new policy “viral sovereignty.” Other countries, such as India, quickly latched on to the concept of owning patents on indigenous diseases.
Henry had been very much involved in the controversy. Withholding data was insane, he argued. Science knows no borders, nor does disease—especially a disease that can literally fly across international boundaries on the wings of a dove. Without the samples, the world community would be helpless to defend against a novel virus. The entire foundation of global health could be undermined. Indonesia made the case that other countries would exploit the virus to formulate vaccines that Indonesia could not afford. Henry worked out an agreement that would give Indonesia a “shared benefit” from the scientific exploitation of the virus, although the pact stopped short of bowing to Indonesia’s demand for unlimited access to the vaccines derived from the samples.
As soon as that deal was concluded, the argument became far more complicated. Ron Fouchier, at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, modified the Indonesian virus in the laboratory, awarding it new functions, including the abilities to be airborne and transmissible among mammals. Yoshihiro Kawaoka, at the University of Wisconsin, did something similar with a Vietnamese strain of the same virus. The two men did this to create a template for a vaccine in case of a future pandemic, but as they were about to publish their findings, including their methodology, The New York Times scolded the scientists for undertaking such a “doomsday” experiment. Such a virus “could kill tens or hundreds of millions of people if it escaped confinement or was stolen by terrorists.” The U.S. National Science Advisory for Biosecurity put a stop to the experiment, but not before new questions had arisen about who “owned” the newly created virus. The American and Dutch governments were repeating the same arguments that the Indonesians had previously made. Henry chaired a meeting of international health officials at WHO in 2012, in which they resolved that the Fouchier and Kawaoka papers be published without redactions, which they were. Knowledge was dangerous, Henry reasoned, but ignorance was far worse. The Indonesians accused Henry of deceiving them. The bad blood evidently remained.
Once again, the receptionist made her way to Henry, this time with a tight, condescending smile. “Minister Annisa regrets that she cannot see you today,” she said under her breath, so that he might not be embarrassed in front of the remaining supplicants. “She promises that tomorrow—”
“Too bad,” Henry said.
“Yes,” the receptionist said, caught off guard by the volume of Henry’s voice, “she feels very bad.”
“Too bad that I will have to implement an order of noncompliance. She can see me now, or she can deal with the international monitors tomorrow. It’s entirely up to her. She’s got till three p.m. to decide.”
The receptionist glanced at the clock. Three p.m. was forty-five seconds away. She hesitated, then rushed into the minister’s office. Just as the second hand swept the top of the dial, the door opened again.
Minister Annisa Novanto was a cold-eyed apparatchik whose smile scarcely concealed the anxiety inside. Henry had first met her when she was a health officer in Bali, during a rabies epidemic. Her main interest then was in controlling the media rather than the disease. She did such an effective job that when Minister Siti was shuffled off to prison for accepting bribes, Annisa was appointed to take her post. She had recently taken the hijab, an indication of how far the country was drifting toward religious conservatism. She appeared to be just another compliant Wahhabi bureaucrat.
“Ah, Henry, you always surprise me,” the minister said. “You might have given me more notice. We are very busy getting the pilgrims health certificates for the hajj. No need to summon the gendarmes.”
“This won’t take long, Minister. I’m only here to inform you of my presence, as per protocol, and gather samples from this refugee camp in Kongoli. Then I’ll be on my way.”
“Henry, really, this is such a minor matter. I’m stunned that Your Eminence would feel the need to come so far, at such expense—”
“I don’t make policy, I just collect the data.”
“Already we gave slides to the Dutch. They made their conclusions. So we wonder why you come. We have no more problems in Kongoli.”
“That will be easy to determine. The isolates will tell