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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
This book is a big helping of food-for-thought. Biss explores us through the lense of vaccination. She explores the subject by looking at the vocabulary, the history, and our fears, as well as the wise words of her physician father. Then she asks questions about conscience, the "other", and individual vs. group resposibilities. So much to explore and think about.
I read an ePub edition from my library which does not have internal links to the notes, making it difficult to follow these very intregal parts of the book.
I read an ePub edition from my library which does not have internal links to the notes, making it difficult to follow these very intregal parts of the book.
I firmly believe that this is one of the finest works of moral philosophy I have ever read. A life-changing book.
A short, sharp read. This can be an emotive topic for some, but it's handled with respect, knowledge and interest. Also, her parents sound like lovely people too - OK, nothing to really do with the topic but the book also contains some pockets about the author and her family, I think I'm allowed.
Perhaps I'm being unfair to the author in her being more understanding towards the anti-science folks that have sprung up around basic settled science like vaccinations, but I can't help but want more in that vein.
Of all the ill-intentioned movements of modern life, the Anti-Vaccine one has to rank among the stupidest and is high on the list of those which will cause the most harm. It is anti-science, anti-modern, anti-sensible, and pro-disease. My wish for this book is that it would have taken a harder stance against this utterly irresponsible modern tendency to produce boogey-men out of whole cloth. Instead it often takes a cautious approach, almost giving equal weight to both arguments. Reading this in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic one can’t help that there will soon be a vaccine that will enable us all to live normal lives again and cut down on unnecessary pain & suffering. Hopefully there won’t be nervous Nancies, like the author of this book often comes across, giving credence to people like Andrew Wakefield who have done so much to poison the well of modern life with such ridiculous beliefs. Given all that, the parts where she seemingly comes to grips with the need for vaccines in our lives are still worth a read – my fear with the book is that it gives a skeptical reader additional unfounded fears.
This book is a collection of essays from the author's perspective as a doctor's daughter and a mother. It informs the reader about immunity, viruses, history of some diseases, clinical trials and vaccination. It also explains the concept of herd immunity and the process involved in finding a vaccine for a disease. I found this book very relevant to the current crisis of coronavirus.
This book does not focus only on hard science. It sheds light on how healthcare impacts, as well as gets impacted by politics, economics, morality and prejudice. It was interesting to read about how the metaphors we use to describe disease and immunity can influence our thought process about health.
I liked how the author referenced books by professionals to back up her claims and occasionally quoted fiction or recounted her own experience when she focussed on philosophical grey areas.
This book does not focus only on hard science. It sheds light on how healthcare impacts, as well as gets impacted by politics, economics, morality and prejudice. It was interesting to read about how the metaphors we use to describe disease and immunity can influence our thought process about health.
I liked how the author referenced books by professionals to back up her claims and occasionally quoted fiction or recounted her own experience when she focussed on philosophical grey areas.
This was really well written & well researched. I have a (very) pro-vaccine bias since I work in Public Health but it did help me understand where fear of vaccines may come from. I think it does a very good job of making the way vaccines work, how our bodies respond to them, the rarity of serious reactions to them and benefits of following the childhood vaccination schedule more easily understood by someone who doesn't have a medical background.
I read this as part of my Book Riot Read Harder challenge (it fulfills the "a-book-published-by-an-indie-press" requirement). I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. I'm much more "into" fiction and so I was worried this book was going to be too dry. It wasn't. It was filled with all kinds of stats and facts, of course, but there was also a lot of personal details about the author's life and young son so that made it more readable and identifiable. I'd recommend the book to everyone but I think it's especially important for parents of young children to read it.
I honestly think this should be read by everyone, but especially by all us women of childbearing age.