Word: agent
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...spread of the infection led U.S. intelligence analysts to suspect that the cause was anthrax, a deadly bacterial disease, and that the contamination could not have come from natural sources. Thus, according to State, the epidemic "may have resulted from inadvertent exposure of the populace to a biological-warfare agent" from a nearby factory manufacturing banned weapons...
...implications were staggering. Here at last, it seemed, was an agent that would mow down a broad spectrum of viruses, just as penicillin does with bacteria. Most laymen remained unaware of the discovery, but one notable exception was Dan Barry, artist of the Flash Gordon comic strip. That became evident when the first clinical use of interferon took place not in a hospital but in a 1960 Flash Gordon adventure. In that episode, spacemen infected with an extraterrestrial virus aboard a rocket ship far from home are pulled back from death's door by last-minute injections of interferon...
...best, perhaps because, as Pathologist Robert Friedman of the National Institutes of Health says, it is more of an "insider," a substance tailor-made by the immune system cells themselves. According to Samuel Baron, the Texas virologist, immune IF is 20 times more potent an antitumor agent than the interferon produced by fibroblast or leukocyte cells...
...citizens thought they should have been told. "Public attitudes are improving," said Arnold, "but we still have some image problems." Economically, Middletown appears to be in good condition. There was no mass exodus of frightened families. The local real estate market is about what it was and, reported an agent, would probably be a lot better if mortgage money were more readily available. Retail business in the community has actually improved, at least in part because of the influx of well-paid plant cleanup crews. "Sales have never been better," said Jack Baker, manager of a Middletown haberdashery. "There...
...also makes dollars. When Paramount approached Agent Irving Lazar with a story about a terrorist attack on New York, he brought in clients Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins (O Jerusalem!). The result: The Fifth Horseman, which has earned the authors $500,000 before publication and filming. "It's a very natural trend," concludes Lazar. "It will be an inspiration to some writers...