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4.42 AVERAGE
4.42 AVERAGE
Helpful in light of our current situation with the coronavirus pandemic. The science was a bit of a struggle to follow but overall the information was explained well.
challenging
informative
medium-paced
Excellent work of science writing.
I described this to a friend as the happy intersection of reading for work (epidemiologist) and reading for pleasure (epidemiologists who work in hospital acquired infections, and who aced infectious disease epidemiology coursework, have a morbid curiosity regarding crazy zoonoses - we don't like influenza season, either). Quammen has a great writing style and drops a lot of literary references so I think that helps non-science-y readers.
On the downside, it kind of makes you not want to go in caves (bats, ick). Ever. Or leave your house again. And I sure as hell don't want to visit an animal market in Asia - holy damn.
PS: influenza season is coming so get your flu shots!
I described this to a friend as the happy intersection of reading for work (epidemiologist) and reading for pleasure (epidemiologists who work in hospital acquired infections, and who aced infectious disease epidemiology coursework, have a morbid curiosity regarding crazy zoonoses - we don't like influenza season, either). Quammen has a great writing style and drops a lot of literary references so I think that helps non-science-y readers.
On the downside, it kind of makes you not want to go in caves (bats, ick). Ever. Or leave your house again. And I sure as hell don't want to visit an animal market in Asia - holy damn.
PS: influenza season is coming so get your flu shots!
Utterly horrifying. Easily the scariest thing I've read this century.
And also, you know, very scientifically interesting. And it very nearly inspires me to be the kind of badass veterinarian who does things like trap bats somewhere in Asia. You know, almost.
An unexpected finding: easily the best book I've read for new vocabulary in a good long while. Happy I read it on the Kindle so I had a built in dictionary!
And also, you know, very scientifically interesting. And it very nearly inspires me to be the kind of badass veterinarian who does things like trap bats somewhere in Asia. You know, almost.
An unexpected finding: easily the best book I've read for new vocabulary in a good long while. Happy I read it on the Kindle so I had a built in dictionary!
Una bellissima avventura in giro per il mondo, tra giungle, fiumi, laboratori e villaggi.
Quammen è bravissimo a raccontare ciò che studia, che vede ed esperisce, oltre che a spiegare in maniera molto semplice concetti di microbiologia come, per esempio, la composizione di un virus.
Date le circostanze, questo libro è ormai ritenuto profetico ma, a prescindere da ciò, io credo che debba essere letto da tutti perché, come dice l'autore, "Le zoonosi ci ricordano che, in quanto esseri umani, siamo parte della natura, e che la stessa idea di un mondo naturale distinto da noi è sbagliata e artificiale".
Quammen è bravissimo a raccontare ciò che studia, che vede ed esperisce, oltre che a spiegare in maniera molto semplice concetti di microbiologia come, per esempio, la composizione di un virus.
Date le circostanze, questo libro è ormai ritenuto profetico ma, a prescindere da ciò, io credo che debba essere letto da tutti perché, come dice l'autore, "Le zoonosi ci ricordano che, in quanto esseri umani, siamo parte della natura, e che la stessa idea di un mondo naturale distinto da noi è sbagliata e artificiale".
Absolutely FANTASTIC. Worth buying in hard copy (I read it on my Kindle) because it was so incredibly good.
I've always had an interest in animal health, but my interest has slowly evolved to encompass human health and public health. This book covers a perfect marriage of the three subjects, and it was absolutely fascinating.
One of the best pieces of nonfiction I've read. Highly informative, extremely engaging and well-written, Spillover is a must-read for those interested in epidemiology, zoonotic disease and public health.
I hope to find more nonfiction books of this caliber on this subject.
I've always had an interest in animal health, but my interest has slowly evolved to encompass human health and public health. This book covers a perfect marriage of the three subjects, and it was absolutely fascinating.
One of the best pieces of nonfiction I've read. Highly informative, extremely engaging and well-written, Spillover is a must-read for those interested in epidemiology, zoonotic disease and public health.
I hope to find more nonfiction books of this caliber on this subject.
A highly interesting overview of pandemics, written in 2012 before COVID of course ravaged the world. It is interesting seeing coronavirus mentioned in a different context, and broadly it was intriguing learning about how different spillovers impacted the world (AIDS, SARS and Ebola were covered amongst others).
Thorough, well researched, extensive bibliography. Very interesting perspective on the Next Big One, coming from before it arrived.
WOW. When I first started this book, I was apprehensive on how long it would take me to read it, since it is quite long. Imagine my surprise when I raced through it in a little over a week because I could not put it down. It's spectacular!
This book was published in 2013 but it is extremely timely and shares important information about why animal infections are increasingly spilling over into humans. Does Quammen predict COVID-19? Kind of - he discusses the "next big one" and what it looks like - COVID-19 meets many of the qualifications listed.
Quammen dives in depth into the ties between evolution and ecology and how those can contribute to spillover. Evolution enables viruses, which mutate quickly, to adapt quickly within changing circumstances, such as spillover events. Ecology relates to spillover events because "human-caused ecological pressures and disruptions are bringing animal pathogens ever more into contact with human populations, while human technology and behavior are spreading those pathogens ever more widely and quickly." Quammen also goes on to note "As we besiege them, as we corner them, as we exterminate them and eat them, we’re getting their diseases.”
Quammen delves into diseases such as Ebola, malaria, SARS, AIDS, Lyme Disease, and numerous others. Each chapter goes in depth into various diseases, while also discussing the science behind diseases and transmission, mathematical modeling of diseases, evolutionary history, etc. However, it is all done in an accessible way, with enough detail for understanding without veering into being overwhelming or being overly pedantic. I definitely learned a lot from this book. For example, I found out about the different types of hosts for diseases, such as vectors, reservoirs, and amplifiers. Pigs are amplifier hosts for Foot and Mouth Disease – they excrete SO much more of it than other livestock, thirty times more in fact, and once the virus is airborne, it can waft along for miles. I learned that bats make up 1 in 4 mammalian species. I learned about how one superspreader for the 2003-2004 SARS epidemic stayed in a hotel and as a result of his time there, infected at least seventeen other people. The first superspreader for SARS infected 41 people, patients, nurses, doctors, all in a hospital when he was intubated.
Scary stuff, right? Why on earth did I choose to read this book now of all times? Well, for one thing, we’re already in the middle of a global pandemic from a spillover event, so what Quammen is talking about has happened. And for another thing, Quammen states right off the bat that “the purpose of this book is not to make you more worried. The purpose of this book is to make you more smart” – and I do feel more smart. I strongly feel like in this case knowledge is power. In the future, as a result of reading this book, I will be quite cautious if I ever have to deal with ticks and bats, as well as religiously wearing a mask when traveling on a commercial airliner.
The amazing thing about this book is that I actually laughed out loud regularly while reading this book. Quammen is quite funny and throws some zingers in there to help alleviate the weight and depth of the content he is discussing, without detracting from the topic at hand. Some lines that made me laugh in particular were:
- “If your husband catches an ebolavirus, give him food and water and love and maybe prayers but keep your distance, wait patiently, hope for the best---and, if he dies, don’t clean out his bowels by hand. Better to step back, blow a kiss, and burn the hut.”
- “A whitetail in the woods of Connecticut, during November, is like a teeming singles' bar in lower Manhattan on Friday night, crowded with lubricious seekers. One poor doe might be carrying a thousand mature blacklegged ticks. Mating occurs, somewhat gracelessly, when a male tick, prowling across the skin of the deer, encounters a preoccupied female--she is tapped in, drinking, immobile. Don't look for romance in arachnoid sex."
- “‘Wait a minute, lemme get this straight: You’re in a cave in Uganda, surrounded by Marburg and rabies and black forest cobras, wading through a slurry of dead bats, getting hit in the face by live ones like Tippi Hedren in The Birds, and the walls are alive with thirsty ticks, and you can hardly breathe, and you can hardly see, and . . . you’ve got time to be claustrophobic?....“Uganda is not famous for its mine rescue teams,” he said.”
All in all, I’d recommend this book to almost anyone – particularly anyone who loves a good nonfiction read, those interested in learning more about disease or evolution or ecology, or someone who is looking to learn more in general about our global world and how we’re all interconnected whether we like it or not. Look for it as my next staff pick.
This book was published in 2013 but it is extremely timely and shares important information about why animal infections are increasingly spilling over into humans. Does Quammen predict COVID-19? Kind of - he discusses the "next big one" and what it looks like - COVID-19 meets many of the qualifications listed.
Quammen dives in depth into the ties between evolution and ecology and how those can contribute to spillover. Evolution enables viruses, which mutate quickly, to adapt quickly within changing circumstances, such as spillover events. Ecology relates to spillover events because "human-caused ecological pressures and disruptions are bringing animal pathogens ever more into contact with human populations, while human technology and behavior are spreading those pathogens ever more widely and quickly." Quammen also goes on to note "As we besiege them, as we corner them, as we exterminate them and eat them, we’re getting their diseases.”
Quammen delves into diseases such as Ebola, malaria, SARS, AIDS, Lyme Disease, and numerous others. Each chapter goes in depth into various diseases, while also discussing the science behind diseases and transmission, mathematical modeling of diseases, evolutionary history, etc. However, it is all done in an accessible way, with enough detail for understanding without veering into being overwhelming or being overly pedantic. I definitely learned a lot from this book. For example, I found out about the different types of hosts for diseases, such as vectors, reservoirs, and amplifiers. Pigs are amplifier hosts for Foot and Mouth Disease – they excrete SO much more of it than other livestock, thirty times more in fact, and once the virus is airborne, it can waft along for miles. I learned that bats make up 1 in 4 mammalian species. I learned about how one superspreader for the 2003-2004 SARS epidemic stayed in a hotel and as a result of his time there, infected at least seventeen other people. The first superspreader for SARS infected 41 people, patients, nurses, doctors, all in a hospital when he was intubated.
Scary stuff, right? Why on earth did I choose to read this book now of all times? Well, for one thing, we’re already in the middle of a global pandemic from a spillover event, so what Quammen is talking about has happened. And for another thing, Quammen states right off the bat that “the purpose of this book is not to make you more worried. The purpose of this book is to make you more smart” – and I do feel more smart. I strongly feel like in this case knowledge is power. In the future, as a result of reading this book, I will be quite cautious if I ever have to deal with ticks and bats, as well as religiously wearing a mask when traveling on a commercial airliner.
The amazing thing about this book is that I actually laughed out loud regularly while reading this book. Quammen is quite funny and throws some zingers in there to help alleviate the weight and depth of the content he is discussing, without detracting from the topic at hand. Some lines that made me laugh in particular were:
- “If your husband catches an ebolavirus, give him food and water and love and maybe prayers but keep your distance, wait patiently, hope for the best---and, if he dies, don’t clean out his bowels by hand. Better to step back, blow a kiss, and burn the hut.”
- “A whitetail in the woods of Connecticut, during November, is like a teeming singles' bar in lower Manhattan on Friday night, crowded with lubricious seekers. One poor doe might be carrying a thousand mature blacklegged ticks. Mating occurs, somewhat gracelessly, when a male tick, prowling across the skin of the deer, encounters a preoccupied female--she is tapped in, drinking, immobile. Don't look for romance in arachnoid sex."
- “‘Wait a minute, lemme get this straight: You’re in a cave in Uganda, surrounded by Marburg and rabies and black forest cobras, wading through a slurry of dead bats, getting hit in the face by live ones like Tippi Hedren in The Birds, and the walls are alive with thirsty ticks, and you can hardly breathe, and you can hardly see, and . . . you’ve got time to be claustrophobic?....“Uganda is not famous for its mine rescue teams,” he said.”
All in all, I’d recommend this book to almost anyone – particularly anyone who loves a good nonfiction read, those interested in learning more about disease or evolution or ecology, or someone who is looking to learn more in general about our global world and how we’re all interconnected whether we like it or not. Look for it as my next staff pick.
Excellent book covering a multitude of zoonotic diseases. Really enjoyed all the information and storytelling. More informative than full of scare tactics.