A review by annemaries_shelves
Flu: The Story Of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It by Gina Kolata

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

This was a really great exploration of the 1918 pandemic - full of anecdotes, data, and an impressive amount of investigative journalism to tie all these pieces together over 80+ years of activity. Given that it was published in 1999, there's a lot more research done since and the contexts of SARS, H1N1 2009, COVID-19, and the new, emerging bird flus that could really re-contextualize the original (in many ways) pandemic. I really recommend Flu for those who love science history - there's not a lot of the broader societal impacts/effects, but enough I think to satisfy those who love the narrative and impact elements vs the science, research, and political tie-ins (because science always comes against politics). I will note the first chapter explores the 1918 pandemic as it's happening, and it feels VERY familiar to those of us who have experienced COVID-19 - I wasn't able to read it in 2020 when I first picked it up, but 2o24 gave me enough distance to handle the content.