James, I went to the site and read it all.
You call it a novella. SO: how much is fiction and how much is reportage? It is amazing that MA pinpointed Egypt prior to the Arab Spring and prior to this week’s admission by Egyptian authorities that conditions there are terrible.
I can follow how this _could_ happen. But, then, that is the pull of apocalyptic fiction: that it is possible. My husband works with the public in associated health care. I have a mild auto-immune condition that would make anti-virals problematic. Frankly, even if we, as news junkies who follow epidemiology, pick up on an epidemic coming out of Egypt (assuming it is even made public in time), it could well be too late. We already live in the boonies and could “pull up the drawbridge” and refuse all appointments while having already been exposed and therefore having exposed others.
I enjoyed it as apocalyptic fiction. As for the possibility: not so much.
As to where the reporting stops and the fiction begins, if you go to this page you will see it clearly defined - up to including a physical line to mark the spot. It was always important to me that I delineate that difference.
http://tokuisei.angelfire.com/TCW59.html
When I complete posting the entire work, I will post a page of historical links from the Internet to her work and the many events she has called correctly.