Ebola Island

By Gregor Pratt

This book could be a guide on what governments should not do in the face of the current coronavirus crisis.

A worldwide Ebola crisis and over reactive world governments have put greedy class action lawyer Jack Gamble on the verge of a big payday when the judge allows the class claim to go forward and orders the United States and its CDC to

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gregor Pratt
• Release date: Nov 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9780578649924

Gregor Pratt

Gregor Pratt is a retired 40 year trial lawyer. He was named an Ohio Super Lawyer by his peers, several times in his last years of practice. He has also been involved in real estate development and with charter schools. He lives outside Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife.

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Remarkable characters propel a potent story brimming with action and suspense. Kirkus Reviews

Ebola Island

Gregor Pratt

This is a work of fiction. The characters and events described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or to real persons alive or dead. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher except for brief quotations embodied in critical reviews.

Copyright © (2019) by (Gregor Pratt)

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My efforts here to create this novel were lifted by the help and encouragement of many wonderful people. Friends and family have supported me all along the way. I want to especially thank my loving wife Patty for the countless hours she spent typing my first long hand version of this novel, reading, editing, and reformatting the novel after I yet again messed it up somehow. You would never be seeing this novel were it not for her.

Lauren, my daughter also lent me her support throughout the project and helped me understand many technical issues. Brandy, my former assistant kept me on track and understood better than I did what it would take to get this book published. And Brandy I can’t help but think that his book would have been finished years ago if your new career hadn’t taken off. Congratulations.

Two friends read and edited and suggested changes to the novel, which led to substantial improvements. Kathi N. and Kathy H., thank you both for your kindness and your support and your great help. Mary Beth W., you were great with my book cover and formatting.  And thanks also to my professional editors, Sonja Sweeney, Caroline Tolley and Amy Knupp. You were all great. Your suggestions were on the mark and your encouragement kept me going.

This is my first novel. The next one will be much easier with all that I have learned along the way from the great people above. And I can’t help but feel I am missing some to whom I owe thanks over the several years I have been working on this book. My apologies and my gratitude. I hope all of you enjoy reading Ebola Island.

Gregor Pratt

CHAPTER

1 

United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

March 1, 2025

The young woman in the video stumbled along the sidewalk in the bright sunshine, bleeding from her eyes. The other pedestrians in the video scurried away from her. She braced herself on the wall of an adjacent building and then staggered on, leaving behind the outlines of her bloody fingers streaking down the wall. The camera zoomed in on that. Half a block later, she fell to the ground, collapsing straight down into a human pile. Blood seeped now more heavily from her eyes as she stared toward the sky, unaware of her surroundings. Her body began to convulse, coming in waves, until it released all its fluids onto the sidewalk. The camera revealed a time lapse before people in white hazmat suits came into view. Her remains were loaded into an ambulance-like vehicle before the entire area was sprayed down with a yellow foaming disinfectant.

I looked around the courtroom as the video clicked off. Everyone was still staring at the monitor. I would have to work to undo the impact of that video. I had to admire the dramatic use of the footage. I knew the US attorneys in this case and I suspected the video had been the brainchild of the head of the CDC, who was on the witness stand now.

Ebola, Director Edgar Collins narrated, caused many horrible deaths like the one you just saw all across our country and the world in 2021. We had to take strong action.

The video had been showing on the screen in the courtroom since yesterday and was still on as we resumed today.

The woman you just saw was filmed by local activists in her community of Beaufort, South Carolina.

I had been watching the video quietly but now wanted to wrest control of this courtroom away from the CDC and back to my case, the largest case I had ever been involved in. And that was saying a lot because I had been involved in some huge cases. And had some huge paydays.

The screen changed to a map of the United States. Director Collins spoke and I watched as, one by one, illuminated points appeared on the map. Each point represented an Ebola death. And that was what this case was about, Ebola in the United States and the CDC’s inhumane reaction to it. I had to get back to that. Some communities only had one or three or seven deaths, and some cities, like New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco, had thousands upon thousands.

Collins droned on, All told, there were over two million deaths in the United States in over two thousand different communities. Moved by the rising toll, Congress enacted the Public Health Emergency of International Concern Act. And then the CDC acted to put it into place along with countless other national governments who were experiencing even worse epidemics.

The screen changed again, this time showing a map of Europe and Africa and the Middle East. Africa looked like one giant illuminated point, and Ebola deaths in Europe were much denser than in the United States.

Judge Frederickson presided over this hearing on a preliminary matter, specifically on the motions of the United States and the United States Centers for Disease Control to have this case dismissed or, in the alternative, to have discovery limited unless and until the matter became certified as a class action. Also before the court was my motion for a temporary restraining order, preventing the federal government from taking any further action to deport any individuals under the Public Health Emergency of International Concern Act.

I represented several families who’d had loved ones apprehended, determined by a medical record to have Ebola, and then taken to the treatment centers on the island formerly known as Madagascar. That was all the act required. The lead plaintiff was Alexander. He was the most likable among the group—a young black man from Elmira, New York, college student, all-American athlete, and an only child. His wife had been deported for having Ebola.

I was in the courtroom with Maddy Keller, one of the associates from my firm. Maddy was a very bright young woman. She also had the best legs I had ever seen peeking out from under counsel table, and I planned on seeing more of those shapely gams. She smiled at me, proud of the job I was doing in the courtroom. I smiled back. I had known Maddy since I was in law school and she was an undergrad. She had only recently come to work for me. There were also seven other co-counsel present at additional tables moved into the courtroom for this hearing. A case as big as this one always involved co-counsel, but I had been successful in being named lead counsel. That was where the real money was. And that was important to me.

Since this was the motion of the United States and the CDC, they had the burden to go forward. My motion for a temporary restraining order had been an afterthought, and I didn’t think this judge would grant a restraining order at this stage of the proceedings. I filed this case on behalf of the millions of US citizens who had been summarily shipped out to Ebola treatment centers to protect the rest of us. The United States was one of the signatories to the treatment center idea and treaty and, in fact, had been its chief proponent after Ebola outbreaks occurred in over two thousand communities in this country. I based this case on the Public Health Emergency of International Concern Act, PHEIC for short, and whether or not deportation proceedings under that act were constitutional. I really had no particular feelings for the diseased people who had been shipped out; they were my ticket to a big paycheck.

This case was the reason I had hired Ms. Keller, and she had left a great job with a large New York firm to help me help these poor people. That’s the way I had presented it at least. And she was inspired to try to help them. Really, I was chasing a huge fee. I was paying Maddy well even if not as much as she had been making. And I had promised her a significant bonus if we were victorious. Her work had been invaluable and her compassion unmistakable. I marveled that she couldn't see through my materialistic motives or my less-than-pure motives toward her. I smiled at her again. And I winked at one of my co-counsel, a guy I had known for years.

I stood up. Jack Gamble for the plaintiffs and class. Your Honor, can we limit the presentation of this video and get on to the issues before the court? Much of this is repetitive and some irrelevant. Can we move on to what has become of the victims of these illegal deportations?

This was the sixth class action in three years where I had been or would be lead counsel. My reputation and fortune were both growing. Judge Frederickson knew me well. For a guy who came from nothing, I impressed myself. I couldn’t help but think about all the money I would make from this case. I intended to show the world that I was really somebody important. My parents had both been killed in a car crash when I was twelve. They’d gone out for dinner and never come home. After that I was passed around from relative to relative. It seemed like they set it up so no one had to take care of me for more than one year and then I was on to the next relative and next community. No one was ever mean to me or abused me, but no one ever really loved me either. Not the way my mom did. Each new school year, I had to make new friends. As I got into my teenage years, I found a fast crowd. In the ninth grade, my friends and I drank beer every weekend, smoked pot, and had sex with as many girls as we could. I was surprised at how easy it was to pretend to care. Still, nothing could bring my parents back and none of my relatives seemed to care what I was doing. My grades were good and I had some money to my name from life insurance and the settlement of a lawsuit over my parents’ deaths. My relatives just wanted to see me get into college and adulthood so they could tell their friends how they had taken on the burden of an orphaned child and how well he was doing. In college, I was living the same wild and free life when I met and fell in love with Barbara Fields. I was the only one she would let call her Barbie. She was Barbara! She came from a very wealthy family from Long Island. We met when we were both sophomores and were inseparable for two years. Barbara resembled my mother. I was devastated when she broke up with me. We were at her family’s compound on Long Island when she told me the two years had been great, but now it was time to get on with life and that she needed to find someone of suitable economic means. She laughed when I told her I still had thousands of dollars left over from the settlement of my parents’ case. I would never forget her words, Oh, Jack, that’s just thousands of dollars. I’m talking millions of dollars. You would need many, many more dollars. And she walked out of my life. And I was alone again. My drinking and carousing got worse. My carousing became almost cruel. I decided to go to law school and I became Jonathan Trowbridge Gamble, Jack Gamble for the plaintiffs.

The attorneys for the United States and the CDC announced they were ready to move on to other matters, so the judge just nodded. In addition to the typical assistant US attorneys, the federal government had also hired private counsel. Their presence told me the government took this case very seriously. They should.

The press was calling the treatment center Ebola Island, and the estimates were that the various signatory governments around the world had already sent over fifteen million persons to the island. To date, no one had ever returned home. No one. That was one of the strengths of my case; what kind of treatment center never sent anyone back home? Diseased people were sent there to die. I had a sanguine view of it all. If something terrible hadn’t happened to all those people, I wouldn’t have a good case. I was thrilled to have the lead role in this mammoth case. I knew the case would settle somewhere down the line; I just needed to keep the pressure on.

Other signatory countries to this treaty included France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Norway, and all the rest of western Europe and most of eastern Europe as well. Then there was Japan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel, Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, and most of Southeast Asia. Absent from the agreement were most Middle Eastern countries, China, and New Zealand. People said China was handling its Ebola patients internally and New Zealand thought the plan was inhumane. The Middle Eastern countries did not go along because the United States was promoting the idea.

Yesterday it came out in testimony that, in the world, over six million people had died from Ebola in the three years before the establishment of the island treatment center. That number was based on records and projections made by the CDC.

Collins explained again how the island had been purchased by world governments in response to a rising Ebola threat, the facilities built, the staffing, and the safety precautions. He went on again at length about the world epidemic, the large numbers of horrible deaths that had preceded the establishment of the treatment center—people dying in places like Pittsburgh, Albany, Sacramento, Denver, and dozens and dozens of smaller communities in the United States.

Collins droned on, reading from the act itself. I was half listening. If the World Health Organization determines the global health risk is high, which they did, then the US president is empowered, among other powers, to cause infectious persons to be held at such places within or outside the United States as the president may see fit and to keep them there until they are determined to be of no further risk to the general population. And the burden for this medical imprisonment is ‘some reasonable medical evidence from the medical records of the individual’ to be transferred.

I was familiar with this and I knew it allowed the president to delegate his powers under the act to the CDC. That in fact the president had done that. I also knew the CDC could force mass inoculations on the population and call in the military if it determined that to be necessary. The act was draconian, and I was sure it would soon be overturned, but not today. That was not at issue today.

This act was very clearly unconstitutional. It had been passed by a fearful Congress urged by a panicked populace. The very idea that a person could be detained and transported to a treatment center on an island in Africa based merely on some evidence in a medical record was preposterous to me, and from pretrial comments, I felt, preposterous to this judge. Not to mention the media. They were delirious in their desire to report this as further government abuse. Yes, sir, I had hit it big with this case.

I kept quiet as the judge became more and more impatient with Director Collins. I could object, but I wouldn’t need to. This testimony was a rehash of yesterday, and the reading of the statute from the witness stand was a bad idea. Did this guy think the judge needed schooling in the law?

The courtroom was silent, and when that finally dawned on Director Collins, he fell silent, too.

Are there any further questions, gentlemen? the judge asked, looking over his glasses at those of us assembled in his courtroom.

Assistant US Attorney Johnson rose cautiously. No further questions, Your Honor.

I stood up. How many ‘patients’ are there at the Ebola treatment center?

That’s impossible to answer. Many have died. I just don’t know.

All right, sir. How many patients do you know of that were sent to the Ebola treatment center?

I don’t have a current number.

What is the most current number you have?

Again the director looked at the US attorneys for help. All eyes were down.

As of April first, there had been 9,392,412 patients sent by governments from all over the world, but that number isn’t accurate, he finally said. The long silence in the courtroom was deafening.

I let it sink in. Nine million, three hundred and ninety-two thousand, four hundred and twelve, and that’s not accurate because not all governments keep statistics or report their statistics, is that right, sir?

Yes.

So when you say 9,392,412 isn’t accurate, you mean it’s too low?

The director coughed. Yes.

Director, how can one treatment center hope to treat nine million patients?

We use Treatment Center to refer to the whole island, the ninety percent controlled by the signatory governments, anyway. There are multiple treatment center facilities there.

Multiple, like how many, Director?

The director looked to counsel table; they were looking at their notes.

From memory, about fourteen hundred scattered across the island…er, across the Treatment Center.

Fourteen hundred. And where on the island are these facilities?

Everywhere. The governing body decided, in the face of huge numbers of Ebola-infected subjects, to utilize the existing infrastructure on the island, roads, hospitals, water, sewer, housing, and to build centralized treatment center facilities that subjects in the area of a treatment facility could come to for treatment.

Where specifically, Director?

The judge interrupted and addressed the US attorneys. Counsel, is there any reason why I can’t have a complete list of all these treatment facilities by nine a.m. tomorrow?

No, Your Honor, we’ll see that you receive that list.

And make sure Mr. Gamble gets a copy, too. He paused for effect. You may continue, Mr. Gamble.

I understood to move on to a different line of questioning and I nodded and smiled at the judge as if he had done my bidding.

Director, for now, can you tell us anything about how you chose their locations?

Yes, each one had to meet certain criteria including an adequate fresh water supply, close to suitable housing, close to transportation facilities, a defensible site, and several other factors I cannot recall right now.

I see. So anywhere there was a city or town with some housing and a nearby airport would do?

I wouldn’t say that. Remember we were replacing hundreds or thousands of treatment centers all over the world that closed as these treatment centers opened.

Yes, and you were a leader in that, were you not, Director Collins?

The United States was, after we had multiple outbreaks in communities that had local Ebola Treatment Centers.

I paused for effect. I had been waiting for this point. Director Collins, can you tell us how this epidemic came to be if the CDC had been doing its job in the first place?

Objection, Your Honor, Assistant US Attorney Johnson called out as he rose to his feet.

Judge Frederickson motioned with his hand for Johnson to sit down. Objection overruled. The question is poorly phrased, but I want to hear the answer.

Director Collins had turned red at this question, and I watched him collect his thoughts before answering. We didn't realize the extent to which Ebola lay dormant in the population, sometimes for months. As I said yesterday, this epidemic was precipitated by large-scale violence in Africa and the many thousands of refugees who fled into the world, some carrying Ebola. The disease could have been stopped there in Africa but the combatants attacked the treatment facilities and then many began to ignore the proper burial protocol for burying Ebola victims. Additionally, we were relying on the efficacy of several vaccines to prevent or reduce the spread of Ebola particularly among healthcare workers. The vaccines didn’t work as promised and, in some cases, made the epidemic worse and the healthcare workers contracted Ebola and then contaminated many other people before we realized what was going on.

I see, I said. So was any of this your fault, Director Collins, as the head of the CDC?

Collins looked down. I agree it was my responsibility as it occurred on my watch. That’s why it was so important to establish the treatment centers on a remote island. We didn’t know how else to stop the spread of this killer disease. We thought it capable of killing off most of the world population.

That was a good answer on his part. I had asked one question too many in that area, so I decided to move to a different area. Director, of the 9,392,412 people sent to this island, how many were sent there by the United States government?

Again the director tried to avoid my question. Some of the persons sent there from this country were not US citizens.

I nodded my head. We’ll get to that, Director. Right now my question is how many people has the United States sent to the Ebola Treatment Center?

Again he tried to avoid the question. I don’t know.

Perfect, for my purposes anyway. Do you have records that establish how many people and who they are?

Collins saw his mistake but slowly nodded his head and said, Yes, we have such records.

Since one issue was whether or not I would be allowed to conduct discovery, I had, at least, established that the CDC had records that could identify who all the potential members of the class were.

Does the CDC also have records that establish the last known address of each of these people sent to the treatment center by the United States government?

Director Collins looked at me oddly and said with hesitation, Yes, drawing the word out.

I wondered about his look. How many of these people have been transferred back to the United States after first being transferred to the treatment center? I knew the answer to this question was none but needed to make my record and wanted to be sure the judge remembered this.

Collins coughed and then answered with his hand still in front of his mouth. These people were transferred to the treatment center to protect the larger society and have not been determined to be of no further risk to society.

I was now staring at Director Collins, as was Judge Frederickson. Do you mean to tell this court that not one individual transferred by the United States government has been treated and returned home? Not one? I understood the strange look Collins had given me earlier, but now he understood the importance of this question. I sent Maddy a half smile and got a wide-eyed and amused look of approval in return.

Collins stammered, That’s right, they’re all still at the treatment center.

I felt like a lion about to pounce on prey. Well, not all of them, Director Collins. How many people that the United States shipped to these treatment centers have died horrible deaths like the deaths you displayed in your documentary?

I could tell by the cold look in Collins’ eyes that he wanted to argue with me, but he controlled himself. I don’t know.

And Director Collins, while you may not know the exact number of people sent there by the United States government without checking records, can we agree that the number is more than one and a half million people?

The correct number was greater than two million people but I was hoping to get his agreement with a large number.

He nodded. Yes, it’s more than one and a half million people.

I paused to let that sink in and saw out of the corner of my eye that the judge was writing in his notes.

Next I established that each of these more than one and a half million people was sent from the United States to the treatment center because there was some medical record confirming they had Ebola and that each person was shipped to this island within forty-eight hours of the court hearing presented in the name of the CDC. The due process issues were apparent to all of the lawyers in the courtroom. Yes, sir, this was the biggest case I had ever been involved in. It might turn out to be one of the biggest cases anywhere.

Next, I explored what sort of treatment was administered at the treatment center. While not completely fair, I made it look like there was no treatment, only feeding the patients until they died while trying to keep the treatment personnel safe from Ebola.

I finished questioning Director Collins, and the assistant US attorney declined the chance to ask any more questions.

The judge intoned, If there is nothing else, gentlemen, I will take the matter under advisement and issue my ruling on the pending motions soon.

Your Honor.  It was Assistant US Attorney Johnson. The United States hereby requests that the record of today’s hearing be sealed in the name of national security, and that all counsel and parties be ordered to refrain from any and all contact with the media or any publication of this hearing.

I started to rise. The judge stopped me by extending his arm with his hand raised.

Counsel, that motion is denied. I see no reason why the general public couldn’t or shouldn’t hear about this matter. And you can begin preparations for discovery. Mr. Gamble has established the existence of a class of persons likely to prevail on the merits against the CDC and the United States. What I need to take under advisement is what, if any, limits, on discovery may be in order. And plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order is denied. That’s all, ladies and gentlemen. It will all be in my order. The judge rose and left the courtroom.

Co-counsel patted me on the back and congratulated me on a job well done. These attorneys were all looking to make a lot of money, too, but not as much as I would make, not even close. These first two days had gone well, and I already had my discovery planned out. Before the end of the year, I expected to be collecting tens of millions of dollars, all the while pretending to be concerned about the poor people illegally deported by the government. Their suffering was my payday.

Maddy Keller congratulated me, too. Nice job. You let them have it, and you got set up for the discovery you wanted.

I smiled and looked up. Just as soon as the door closed behind Judge Frederickson, Director Collins stood and, without a word or even a nod to the assistant US attorneys and private attorneys who had represented him, turned and walked toward the doorway out