TIME OF THE FOURTH HORSEMAN

At a huge, overcomputerized LA hospital of the not-too-remote future, a group of doctors stumble on a hush-hush triage project involving randomly deactivated vaccines. The result is not just a little judicious thinning of the great unwashed but a full-blown pandemic of many once-extinct diseases. In the face of police-backed action by their superiors and a murderous surge of anti-doctor hysteria among the Inner City youth, the rebel doctors set up their own emergency care center and man it with ever-shrinking resources. Good premise, packaged dehydrated characterizations. Yarbro, who has written promising sf short stories, shows little sense of pacing and effect.