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deecreatenola 's review for:
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
by David Quammen
It's hard to imagine a more important book to read right now. I heard the author on Fresh Air back in January, when the pandemic was just getting started. I work tangentially in public health and thought it would be good for me to understand the situation so I got the book from the library.
It's a bit of tome. About 600 pages, although the last chunk of pages are notes, so I think it came in at about 515 pages to read. And it's dense, not something you can breeze through. But worthwhile.
It's clear that this book was more than an assignment for Quammen, a science writer who often writes for National Geographic. It's an avocation for him, something that has gnawed at him throughout his career and his life, with a desire to answer why>
He takes you through several outbreaks, some small and localized, others wider and more dangerous. Hendra, Ebola, SARS, and more. He introduces you to the scientists and virologists studying these diseases, names you won't see in the headlines but folks who clearly share his avocation.
I'm amazed at the depth of his research, the journeys to China, Africa, Australia. He treks out into the jungle, visit wet markets, helps get blood samples from macaques. He talks to doctors, lab techs, and people who've been exposed to deadly viruses and survived.
His interest in this topic spans about twenty years at the time of this book's publication (2012). In that time, some of the researchers he interviews pass away themselves (usually of natural causes). He digs into history going back one hundred years.
Everything about this book is prescient. We are living out the cautionary tale of this book right this very minute. The conspiracy theories that abound right now are mind-boggling. Reading this book it's easy and clear to see that a pandemic of this sort was just waiting to happen. The only disappointment is that we weren't prepared despite the preponderance of evidence.
It's a bit of tome. About 600 pages, although the last chunk of pages are notes, so I think it came in at about 515 pages to read. And it's dense, not something you can breeze through. But worthwhile.
It's clear that this book was more than an assignment for Quammen, a science writer who often writes for National Geographic. It's an avocation for him, something that has gnawed at him throughout his career and his life, with a desire to answer why>
He takes you through several outbreaks, some small and localized, others wider and more dangerous. Hendra, Ebola, SARS, and more. He introduces you to the scientists and virologists studying these diseases, names you won't see in the headlines but folks who clearly share his avocation.
I'm amazed at the depth of his research, the journeys to China, Africa, Australia. He treks out into the jungle, visit wet markets, helps get blood samples from macaques. He talks to doctors, lab techs, and people who've been exposed to deadly viruses and survived.
His interest in this topic spans about twenty years at the time of this book's publication (2012). In that time, some of the researchers he interviews pass away themselves (usually of natural causes). He digs into history going back one hundred years.
Everything about this book is prescient. We are living out the cautionary tale of this book right this very minute. The conspiracy theories that abound right now are mind-boggling. Reading this book it's easy and clear to see that a pandemic of this sort was just waiting to happen. The only disappointment is that we weren't prepared despite the preponderance of evidence.