What do you think?
Rate this book
The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age
“One of the world’s foremost virus hunters” (Financial Times), Stanford University biologist Nathan Wolfe reveals the origins of the world’s most deadly diseases and how we can combat and stop contagions.A “mix of biology, history, medicine, and first-hand experience [that] is potent and irresistible,”* The Viral The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age shares information Wolfe uncovered on his groundbreaking and dangerous research missions in the jungles of Africa and the rain forests of Borneo to provide an in-depth exploration of how lethal viruses evolved alongside human beings; how illnesses like HIV, swine flu, and bird flu almost wiped us out in the past; and why modern life has made our species vulnerable to the threat of a global pandemic.In a world where each new outbreak seems worse than the one before, Wolfe points the way forward, as new technologies are brought to bear in the most remote areas of the world to neutralize these viruses and even harness their power for the good of humanity. His provocative vision of the future will change the way we think about viruses, and perhaps remove a potential threat to humanity’s survival.“An astonishingly lucid book on an important topic. Deeply researched, yet effortlessly recounted.”—*Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2011
226 people are currently reading
3969 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews
April 7, 2013
An oversimplified view of infectious disease that lacked new information for anyone even moderately well-read in the field, I was disappointed by Nathan Wolfe's book. Wolfe attempted to follow the pattern so often used by infectious disease literature - open with a case study of a real person infected by the disease before transitioning into more depth information on the microbe. However, the opening anecdotes frequently ended up being unconnected to the rest of the chapter. Wolfe then failed to offer any in-depth information on whatever subject he was attempting to cover, relying instead on sweeping generalizations that failed to demonstrate any real understanding of infectious disease. I am not an expert in epidemiology; however, by merely being interested in the topic and having read other books in the field, Wolfe managed to provide me with absolutely no unique information.
Also detracting from this book was the frequent name-dropping of scientists that Wolfe has worked with. At time, the book read more like an autobiography/CV than an actual non-fiction work. I, as the reader, never learned about the research these people were doing, nor how it impacted the field (although I did learn things such as the name of their pets and how Wolfe met them).
If you're looking for a good book about disease, this isn't it. Try someone like Laurie Garret, who demonstrates a thorough understanding of the field of infectious disease AND has strong writing ability. Wolfe apparently lacks both.
Not worth the money or the time.
Also detracting from this book was the frequent name-dropping of scientists that Wolfe has worked with. At time, the book read more like an autobiography/CV than an actual non-fiction work. I, as the reader, never learned about the research these people were doing, nor how it impacted the field (although I did learn things such as the name of their pets and how Wolfe met them).
If you're looking for a good book about disease, this isn't it. Try someone like Laurie Garret, who demonstrates a thorough understanding of the field of infectious disease AND has strong writing ability. Wolfe apparently lacks both.
Not worth the money or the time.
April 3, 2020
As we are, currently, in the middle of a pandemic, it seemed a good time to read this book – which seemed to keep cropping up as a Kindle Deal of the Day. I know very little about such things and, as always, am curious to try to find out about subjects which I do not really understand; especially if they are affecting me personally.
If you have a medical background, this may not suffice, but, personally, I found it a very readable and informative account of the discovery of viruses – from the Latin word, which refers to poison, if you are interested. Although author, Nathan Wolfe, spends his life trying to track possible pandemics, and halt them, he keeps this book pitched at the level of the general reader. He introduces the personal stories to make his, obviously vastly superior knowledge, relatable and he does not judge. There has been much in the media, for example, of the spread of the current coronavirus originating by eating certain wildlife and Wolfe acknowledges, and is fascinated by, the way that hunting, and eating, meat, allows microbes to travel. However, he is not judgemental of people who hunt, to feed their families, and he is, also obviously, passionate about his subject.
Indeed, the author has a real passion for his subject and shows how the way that people have changed how they travel, cook, and eat, has led to all sorts of possibilities for pandemics to hit populations. Along the way, he informs, educates and also draws the reader in. We learn of how people literally being by the Amazon one day, and in Australia the next, can help spread microbes from the very dust on their boots, of how a child named after him was not Nathan, but rather ‘Doctor Nathan,’ allowing the young man to presumably avoid expensive education and yet have his medical title, as Wolfe ruefully reports. Of how the HIV virus lay undiscovered for so many years, of how rabies is spread, the history of inoculation, of why cooking meat changed everything and why, and how, mankind is still so vulnerable to the tiny microbe, which you cannot help having a grudging respect for and which Wolfe obviously both admires and is fascinated by.
His work to try to forecast viral outbreaks is important and encouraging. He finishes by looking at microbes, and how mankind’s history has affected our relationship with them. He states that we have, ‘created the conditions for a perfect viral storm,’ which has left us ill prepared. Our world is so interconnected, domesticated, over populated and urbanised, which has created new ways for disease to spread; although he is also optimistic about the future of monitoring pandemics and diagnosing new microbes. Interestingly, he states that one of the best ways of decreasing his own risk is to wash his hands, or use hand sanitizer, when using public transport or planes, as is not touching his face after shaking lots of hands – something that has now really been reiterated to all of us, is how important such basic steps are. A really interesting read, especially in the current climate.
If you have a medical background, this may not suffice, but, personally, I found it a very readable and informative account of the discovery of viruses – from the Latin word, which refers to poison, if you are interested. Although author, Nathan Wolfe, spends his life trying to track possible pandemics, and halt them, he keeps this book pitched at the level of the general reader. He introduces the personal stories to make his, obviously vastly superior knowledge, relatable and he does not judge. There has been much in the media, for example, of the spread of the current coronavirus originating by eating certain wildlife and Wolfe acknowledges, and is fascinated by, the way that hunting, and eating, meat, allows microbes to travel. However, he is not judgemental of people who hunt, to feed their families, and he is, also obviously, passionate about his subject.
Indeed, the author has a real passion for his subject and shows how the way that people have changed how they travel, cook, and eat, has led to all sorts of possibilities for pandemics to hit populations. Along the way, he informs, educates and also draws the reader in. We learn of how people literally being by the Amazon one day, and in Australia the next, can help spread microbes from the very dust on their boots, of how a child named after him was not Nathan, but rather ‘Doctor Nathan,’ allowing the young man to presumably avoid expensive education and yet have his medical title, as Wolfe ruefully reports. Of how the HIV virus lay undiscovered for so many years, of how rabies is spread, the history of inoculation, of why cooking meat changed everything and why, and how, mankind is still so vulnerable to the tiny microbe, which you cannot help having a grudging respect for and which Wolfe obviously both admires and is fascinated by.
His work to try to forecast viral outbreaks is important and encouraging. He finishes by looking at microbes, and how mankind’s history has affected our relationship with them. He states that we have, ‘created the conditions for a perfect viral storm,’ which has left us ill prepared. Our world is so interconnected, domesticated, over populated and urbanised, which has created new ways for disease to spread; although he is also optimistic about the future of monitoring pandemics and diagnosing new microbes. Interestingly, he states that one of the best ways of decreasing his own risk is to wash his hands, or use hand sanitizer, when using public transport or planes, as is not touching his face after shaking lots of hands – something that has now really been reiterated to all of us, is how important such basic steps are. A really interesting read, especially in the current climate.
February 23, 2012
It sounds like Wolfe has done some interesting research and is working hard to prevent a new viral pandemic, but if you want the details you'll have to look elsewhere, because this poorly edited, badly written book won't give them to you.
Most chapters start with a punchy description of some poor schnook dying of a viral disease, but we learn almost nothing else about that disease and the rest of the chapter gives us only vague dumbed down overview of some topic that, if you have read anything published in the popular science press about infection over the past five years you've already read about in far more detail elsewhere.
The author drops the names of supposedly important researchers he's worked with around the world, without giving us any substantive description of those researchers or their research. Many are described as "incredibly" this or that. The flatness of the prose kept reminding me of freshman college papers I'd graded years ago.
But this wasn't a paper by an inarticulate college freshman. It was an expensive book by someone who is hyped to the skies on the cover flap so I expected to learn something. Alas, with each chapter I read my frustration grew, as Wolfe introduced topic after topic that I would have liked to learn something about, only to drop it after a few paragraphs so he could introduce some other topic he'd drop latter.
The only positive thing I can say about this book is that it is really clear that, unlike many books by science notables, it clearly wasn't ghosted. There is no trace that a professional writer had any hand in writing this dull, repetitive, uninformative book.
Most chapters start with a punchy description of some poor schnook dying of a viral disease, but we learn almost nothing else about that disease and the rest of the chapter gives us only vague dumbed down overview of some topic that, if you have read anything published in the popular science press about infection over the past five years you've already read about in far more detail elsewhere.
The author drops the names of supposedly important researchers he's worked with around the world, without giving us any substantive description of those researchers or their research. Many are described as "incredibly" this or that. The flatness of the prose kept reminding me of freshman college papers I'd graded years ago.
But this wasn't a paper by an inarticulate college freshman. It was an expensive book by someone who is hyped to the skies on the cover flap so I expected to learn something. Alas, with each chapter I read my frustration grew, as Wolfe introduced topic after topic that I would have liked to learn something about, only to drop it after a few paragraphs so he could introduce some other topic he'd drop latter.
The only positive thing I can say about this book is that it is really clear that, unlike many books by science notables, it clearly wasn't ghosted. There is no trace that a professional writer had any hand in writing this dull, repetitive, uninformative book.
June 6, 2022
Click here to hear my thoughts on this book over on my Booktube channel, abookolive!
February 14, 2020
It's a bit disorganized for me, and considering how interested (read: worried) I am in this topic, I found it a bit dull. However, the tidbits I learned here and there about pandemic viruses in general and specific viruses in particular, I think it was well worth my time to read. The book had some particularly interesting facts regarding the AIDS virus and the Nipah virus (from bats to pigs to people). The connection between pandemics and eating meat, in general, is interesting. I've read before about Toxoplasma Gondii, but it's so crazy, it never disappoints, and I was interested in the new hypothesis about cat hoarders potentially being infected- why is that so hard to find out for sure though? I've read before about helpful bacteria, particularly gut bacteria, but this is the first I've heard of potentially helpful viruses. Finally, I thought it was interesting that Nathan Wolfe's data collection dreams (for preventing pandemics) are precisely Edward Snowden's nightmares. There seem to be many sides to the data debate, not just two.
February 12, 2021
Update in 2021: So, I read this book years ago (it was written in 2011, I think I read it in 2014), and decided to go back and see how it held up. Well, it holds up pretty well. In fact, looking at my review below is kind of weird; I wrote all that in 2014 in response to his book. I am not convinced that, even now, we as a species have figured out that tying every part of the world together economically is the enabling factor for the current "viral storm", and they will recur until and unless we at least partially decouple. But, Nathan Wolfe's analysis of the reasons why we are so vulnerable to viral pandemics, written a decade before the current one, is even more impressive now than it was when he wrote it. If you haven't read it, I suggest picking up a copy.
=====================================
Subtitle: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age.
So, sometimes I am a bit concerned about the fact that I've been reading a bunch of books about disease and plague lately. But, you know, they're good, and part of why is that the history of disease is a kind of shadow history of the humans who harbor them. Just as the Black Death couldn't have happened if there hadn't been links (economic, cultural, and military) between Asia and Europe, and the conquest of the New World by the Old couldn't have happened if the germ arsenals on either side had been more evenly matched, the study of the new pandemics that threaten us is a good way of viewing the modern world. The perspective it offers is the right balance of familiar and unfamiliar, to be both interesting and disturbing.
The author of this book, Nathan Wolfe, has a dream, and this book is essentially his attempt to transfer that vision to the reader. Oh, yes, there's lots of science and history thrown in there, but that's mostly just because he's stuffed his brain full of so much of it that he can hardly avoid talking about it. No, what really drove him to write this book, I think, is the desire to will into existence a sort of pandemic Distant Early Warning system. He cannot do this alone, knowledgeable as he is, so he must convince enough of the rest of the world to give him the resources to do it.
To explain what such as system would look like, and why it would look that way, he has to give us some background. What is a pandemic? Where do they come from? How do they get from there to here? How can they be detected? What good would having an early warning do? Each of these questions takes some background, and some exposition, and we are fortunate that Wolfe is a skilled enough writer and storyteller to give us all of this in the right size pieces, packaged the right way, so that the very real human toll of disease isn't lost in a mass of numbers and proclamations of impending doom.
So, for example, when he tells us about where H5N1 (aka "bird flu") was first detected, he tells us that the first victim was a six-year old boy in Thailand, but he also tells us that he "loved riding his bicycle, climbing trees, and playing with his plastic toy Dalmatian that pulled three puppies in tiny brown wagons as it barked mechanically." He tells us about the farm that the boy, Kaptan, lived on, his father's payment of $35 (a large sum for a rice farmer in Thailand) to get an ambulance to transfer him to Bangkok in the hope that he could get better care there, and includes a picture of Kaptan's older brother at the funeral, holding his picture. Wolfe puts details like this throughout the book, about not only the early victims, but also the researchers he works with who go into remote areas in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere to collect information on the movements of the enemy.
And that, in essence, is what modern pandemics have to teach us about the modern world. It is easy to get the impression that the world we live in is one in which the action is in North America, western Europe, and a few other relatively wealthy areas like Japan, plus a few hot spots like the Middle East with the right combination of political unrest and natural resources to get and keep our attention. This book reminds us that when the desparately poor of inland sub-saharan Africa use new logging roads (paid for in order to get lumber for the west, mostly), to find and butcher chimpanzees, we may not hear about it but that doesn't mean it won't affect us (see HIV, Ebola, etc.). If live animal markets in southeast Asia keep different species in close contact, one cage stacked atop another so that they pass microbes along with their feces from one layer down to the next, we may not like to hear about it but the influenza viruses that pass from chicken to pig to human will find us wherever on the globe we are.
Globalization isn't just a way to exchange western goods for lumber and rare earth metals; it's also a way to quickly and efficiently pass microbes of any sort that can live in humans, from that economic periphery back to New York, Tokyo, and London. We are, as a species, almost perfectly designed to suffer from pandemics, and Wolfe shows us many of the reasons why:
1) for reason or reasons still debated, our species experienced (tens of thousands of years ago) a "bottleneck", where our total population was as little as several thousand individuals. With it, we lost a great deal of the microbial diversity that lived inside us as a species. Like the Native Americans learned to their sorrow when the (more microbially diverse) Europeans showed up, if you live with fewer kinds of microbes, your immune system is relatively naive.
2) we, as a species, just love getting close to other animal species. Whether as pets, farm labor, or food sources, we put ourselves in a position to be exposed to the blood (and microbes) of a great variety of other species. Occasionally, those microbes will hit on a way of jumping the gap, and living in us as well.
3) the last few hundred years has seen an ever-accelerating expansion of humans into every corner of the globe, and every ecosystem, finding every possible source of alien (to our species) microbes we can. The people we send to do the dirty work are usually poor, without the money or time for modern hygiene or medical care, and this gives those microbes that jump the gap a relatively hospitable environment in which to acclimate to our species.
4) in the last fifty years, air travel has knit us together in one vast network. The bubonic plague reached Europe by boat, and took months to spread from country to country thereafter, but if such a plague came today, it would reach every continent on the planet within 72 hours or less.
Wolfe's idea, which he has begun to make into a reality, is to look for microbes where they come from, in the places where they are most likely to jump from the species we hunt, to the poorest Third World hunters and farmers who will catch them. Then, by identifying quickly which ones have the potential to wreak havoc worldwide, we could in theory send healthcare resources to the origin, helping the people there survive the incipient pandemic, so that it never evolves the ability to spread further.
I don't know if Wolfe's vision is one that can realistically be achieved. In many ways it sounds like climate change, terrorism, and other modern threats, caused by events in so many different parts of the world that we would need the ability to coordinate globally in order to deal with the problem. Our track record on that is not great, and I wonder if the problem is not so much in our inability to act with a united front, as in our inability to see that globalization is putting us at risk of dangers which we have no mechanisms for facing.
Wolfe, however, is nothing if not an optimist. He is a believer in the power of science, technology, and medicine to find a way. He writes with a clear sympathy for the many poor people who stand first in the path of the oncoming "viral storm", and has an obvious desire to be given the resources to help them (and thus help us). Whether you share his optimism or not, his analysis of the dangers we face is clearly written, informative, and carries enough personal passion to make the reader care. Wolfe is like the best teacher you had in high school, who taught his or her topic with such sincere enthusiasm for it that you loved the class whether you cared about that topic when you began it or not. Wolfe is a writer, thinker, and scientist to watch; we will hear from him again. Let's hope it's for his next book, instead of him testifying before Congress that if they would only fund science properly, maybe next time it could help protect us.
=====================================
Subtitle: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age.
So, sometimes I am a bit concerned about the fact that I've been reading a bunch of books about disease and plague lately. But, you know, they're good, and part of why is that the history of disease is a kind of shadow history of the humans who harbor them. Just as the Black Death couldn't have happened if there hadn't been links (economic, cultural, and military) between Asia and Europe, and the conquest of the New World by the Old couldn't have happened if the germ arsenals on either side had been more evenly matched, the study of the new pandemics that threaten us is a good way of viewing the modern world. The perspective it offers is the right balance of familiar and unfamiliar, to be both interesting and disturbing.
The author of this book, Nathan Wolfe, has a dream, and this book is essentially his attempt to transfer that vision to the reader. Oh, yes, there's lots of science and history thrown in there, but that's mostly just because he's stuffed his brain full of so much of it that he can hardly avoid talking about it. No, what really drove him to write this book, I think, is the desire to will into existence a sort of pandemic Distant Early Warning system. He cannot do this alone, knowledgeable as he is, so he must convince enough of the rest of the world to give him the resources to do it.
To explain what such as system would look like, and why it would look that way, he has to give us some background. What is a pandemic? Where do they come from? How do they get from there to here? How can they be detected? What good would having an early warning do? Each of these questions takes some background, and some exposition, and we are fortunate that Wolfe is a skilled enough writer and storyteller to give us all of this in the right size pieces, packaged the right way, so that the very real human toll of disease isn't lost in a mass of numbers and proclamations of impending doom.
So, for example, when he tells us about where H5N1 (aka "bird flu") was first detected, he tells us that the first victim was a six-year old boy in Thailand, but he also tells us that he "loved riding his bicycle, climbing trees, and playing with his plastic toy Dalmatian that pulled three puppies in tiny brown wagons as it barked mechanically." He tells us about the farm that the boy, Kaptan, lived on, his father's payment of $35 (a large sum for a rice farmer in Thailand) to get an ambulance to transfer him to Bangkok in the hope that he could get better care there, and includes a picture of Kaptan's older brother at the funeral, holding his picture. Wolfe puts details like this throughout the book, about not only the early victims, but also the researchers he works with who go into remote areas in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere to collect information on the movements of the enemy.
And that, in essence, is what modern pandemics have to teach us about the modern world. It is easy to get the impression that the world we live in is one in which the action is in North America, western Europe, and a few other relatively wealthy areas like Japan, plus a few hot spots like the Middle East with the right combination of political unrest and natural resources to get and keep our attention. This book reminds us that when the desparately poor of inland sub-saharan Africa use new logging roads (paid for in order to get lumber for the west, mostly), to find and butcher chimpanzees, we may not hear about it but that doesn't mean it won't affect us (see HIV, Ebola, etc.). If live animal markets in southeast Asia keep different species in close contact, one cage stacked atop another so that they pass microbes along with their feces from one layer down to the next, we may not like to hear about it but the influenza viruses that pass from chicken to pig to human will find us wherever on the globe we are.
Globalization isn't just a way to exchange western goods for lumber and rare earth metals; it's also a way to quickly and efficiently pass microbes of any sort that can live in humans, from that economic periphery back to New York, Tokyo, and London. We are, as a species, almost perfectly designed to suffer from pandemics, and Wolfe shows us many of the reasons why:
1) for reason or reasons still debated, our species experienced (tens of thousands of years ago) a "bottleneck", where our total population was as little as several thousand individuals. With it, we lost a great deal of the microbial diversity that lived inside us as a species. Like the Native Americans learned to their sorrow when the (more microbially diverse) Europeans showed up, if you live with fewer kinds of microbes, your immune system is relatively naive.
2) we, as a species, just love getting close to other animal species. Whether as pets, farm labor, or food sources, we put ourselves in a position to be exposed to the blood (and microbes) of a great variety of other species. Occasionally, those microbes will hit on a way of jumping the gap, and living in us as well.
3) the last few hundred years has seen an ever-accelerating expansion of humans into every corner of the globe, and every ecosystem, finding every possible source of alien (to our species) microbes we can. The people we send to do the dirty work are usually poor, without the money or time for modern hygiene or medical care, and this gives those microbes that jump the gap a relatively hospitable environment in which to acclimate to our species.
4) in the last fifty years, air travel has knit us together in one vast network. The bubonic plague reached Europe by boat, and took months to spread from country to country thereafter, but if such a plague came today, it would reach every continent on the planet within 72 hours or less.
Wolfe's idea, which he has begun to make into a reality, is to look for microbes where they come from, in the places where they are most likely to jump from the species we hunt, to the poorest Third World hunters and farmers who will catch them. Then, by identifying quickly which ones have the potential to wreak havoc worldwide, we could in theory send healthcare resources to the origin, helping the people there survive the incipient pandemic, so that it never evolves the ability to spread further.
I don't know if Wolfe's vision is one that can realistically be achieved. In many ways it sounds like climate change, terrorism, and other modern threats, caused by events in so many different parts of the world that we would need the ability to coordinate globally in order to deal with the problem. Our track record on that is not great, and I wonder if the problem is not so much in our inability to act with a united front, as in our inability to see that globalization is putting us at risk of dangers which we have no mechanisms for facing.
Wolfe, however, is nothing if not an optimist. He is a believer in the power of science, technology, and medicine to find a way. He writes with a clear sympathy for the many poor people who stand first in the path of the oncoming "viral storm", and has an obvious desire to be given the resources to help them (and thus help us). Whether you share his optimism or not, his analysis of the dangers we face is clearly written, informative, and carries enough personal passion to make the reader care. Wolfe is like the best teacher you had in high school, who taught his or her topic with such sincere enthusiasm for it that you loved the class whether you cared about that topic when you began it or not. Wolfe is a writer, thinker, and scientist to watch; we will hear from him again. Let's hope it's for his next book, instead of him testifying before Congress that if they would only fund science properly, maybe next time it could help protect us.
September 20, 2016
I wanted to read this because it seemed relevant considering recent headlines. When I started this book, I thought this was not for me.....it was way too scientific and even though I like research, it just wasn't meaning anything to me. It reminded me of a bad college lecture. But once I settled into the rigor of this book, I actually started thinking that it was interesting. I enjoyed the connections the author was making as he linked so many things to viruses, their development and the spreading of them .... urbanization being the fastest way of sharing illness. I may be a book geek, but I am by no means a science geek, so overall, I liked this. 3 stars.
April 5, 2020
Excellent & apt for the current situation.
January 19, 2012
This is alarmist baloney. The author either doesn't know what he's talking about or else is deliberately misleading the reader.
Right from the start, for example, on page 9, he writes "H5N1 is important because it kills remarkably effectively. The virus's case fatality rate, or the percentage of infected individuals that die, is around 60 percent. For a microbe, that's incredibly deadly."
The reason this statement is so incredible is because it's not true.
First of all, he has the wrong definition of "case fatality rate." Case fatality generally refers to how many people die among those who are sick in the hospital. It is not the same thing as the "percentage of infected individuals that die" because not everyone infected gets sick, let alone sick enough to be in the hospital. The first number is like looking at how many deaths there are on a cruise ship that has crashed and sunk. The second is like looking at how likely you are to die if you ever go on a cruise.
The percentage of infected individuals that die from H5N1 is nowhere near 60%. In fact, it is not known because no one has ever published the necessary studies, but based on the best available data from the CDC it is closer to 0% than to 60%. If you look up the most cited paper on the topic (available free at http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/N...) you can see that it says "The frequencies of human infection have not been determined, and seroprevalence studies are urgently needed." The international experts writing the paper make a clear distinction between case fatality and death-to-infection-ratio.
If this guy messes up the most basic concepts and facts about infectious diseases, I don't think he should be considered an expert on the topic of pandemics.
Right from the start, for example, on page 9, he writes "H5N1 is important because it kills remarkably effectively. The virus's case fatality rate, or the percentage of infected individuals that die, is around 60 percent. For a microbe, that's incredibly deadly."
The reason this statement is so incredible is because it's not true.
First of all, he has the wrong definition of "case fatality rate." Case fatality generally refers to how many people die among those who are sick in the hospital. It is not the same thing as the "percentage of infected individuals that die" because not everyone infected gets sick, let alone sick enough to be in the hospital. The first number is like looking at how many deaths there are on a cruise ship that has crashed and sunk. The second is like looking at how likely you are to die if you ever go on a cruise.
The percentage of infected individuals that die from H5N1 is nowhere near 60%. In fact, it is not known because no one has ever published the necessary studies, but based on the best available data from the CDC it is closer to 0% than to 60%. If you look up the most cited paper on the topic (available free at http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/N...) you can see that it says "The frequencies of human infection have not been determined, and seroprevalence studies are urgently needed." The international experts writing the paper make a clear distinction between case fatality and death-to-infection-ratio.
If this guy messes up the most basic concepts and facts about infectious diseases, I don't think he should be considered an expert on the topic of pandemics.
October 23, 2014
Nathan Wolfe's The Viral Storm should be required reading for everyone talking or worrying hysterically about the current Ebola outbreak. An internationally recognized expert in the fields of viral forecasting, immunology, infectious diseases and human biology, Dr. Wolfe's book reads like a primer rather than a text book. His language is approachable for all readers.
He breaks down how viruses, both good and evil, developed alongside humans. He tracks the history of viruses that are benign. We need them in our bodies to process food and protect us from the evil viruses.
His discussions on how deadly viruses move from animal hosts to human hosts are the stuff of thrillers. Some, he points out, infect an individual and kill it, thereby stopping the transmission. Others, like HIV, swine flu and bird flu, are transmitted from human to human. Some,like Ebola and HIV, can only be transmitted through contact with bodily fluids. Others, swine and bird flu, are actually more dangerous because they easily pass through the human population by droplets in the air.
I bought this book for research for a mystery I'm writing. The book works on that dimension. More importantly, it works as an educational work that takes the hysteria out of pandemics by talking calmly about what these viruses are, how they are transmitted and how they can be forecast at the beginning of an outbreak before it becomes an epidemic or, worse, a pandemic.
I urge anyone interested in learning about illnesses to read this book. You will be better informed. Dr. Wolfe's journey is mankind's.
He breaks down how viruses, both good and evil, developed alongside humans. He tracks the history of viruses that are benign. We need them in our bodies to process food and protect us from the evil viruses.
His discussions on how deadly viruses move from animal hosts to human hosts are the stuff of thrillers. Some, he points out, infect an individual and kill it, thereby stopping the transmission. Others, like HIV, swine flu and bird flu, are transmitted from human to human. Some,like Ebola and HIV, can only be transmitted through contact with bodily fluids. Others, swine and bird flu, are actually more dangerous because they easily pass through the human population by droplets in the air.
I bought this book for research for a mystery I'm writing. The book works on that dimension. More importantly, it works as an educational work that takes the hysteria out of pandemics by talking calmly about what these viruses are, how they are transmitted and how they can be forecast at the beginning of an outbreak before it becomes an epidemic or, worse, a pandemic.
I urge anyone interested in learning about illnesses to read this book. You will be better informed. Dr. Wolfe's journey is mankind's.
October 21, 2017
An informative work that has much to grab your attention; from chimps who self medicate in the wild, to the beginnings of the HIV virus, H1N1, the Nipah virus, & countless others, to the monkey gland procedures of Dr. Voronhoff, & other unsafe medical procedures, to ants and genetics, to vaccine & blood transfusions issues of today.
I found the topic of Xenotransplants (which he didn't admit to sharing an interest in until over half-way through the book) to be revealing of the fact that mankind is more interested in prolonging his days than improving his life.
The book is filled with interesting facts and reminded me of my interest in reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, which Nathan Wolfe also mentions in his book, and I've had on my reading list for some time. Though I don't agree with some of his ideas, his work is extremely relevant to today, and an issue that won't die anytime soon.
I found the topic of Xenotransplants (which he didn't admit to sharing an interest in until over half-way through the book) to be revealing of the fact that mankind is more interested in prolonging his days than improving his life.
The book is filled with interesting facts and reminded me of my interest in reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, which Nathan Wolfe also mentions in his book, and I've had on my reading list for some time. Though I don't agree with some of his ideas, his work is extremely relevant to today, and an issue that won't die anytime soon.
November 15, 2011
This is a good, easy to read overview of the science of viruses - it doesn't match the page-turning quality of Richard Preston's the Hot Zone, but what does? Nathan Wolf focuses on the science, rather than the stories, of tracking viruses and viral diseases and gives you the basics: what viruses are, how they infect humans (by way of birds and mammals), how viruses extend their range and how he and other scientists are working to catch the next viral epidemic before it wreaks havoc. That section was particularly interesting - the use of cell phones, twitter, and our digital habits to pin point when illnesses break out. But it's all fascinating and the book is a page-turner in its own way. I was never bored.
January 19, 2012
This book seemed more focused on singing the praises of the author and his organization than on actually discussing viruses and their potential consequences.
November 15, 2014
Not all scientists can write. Stanford visiting professor Nathan Wolfe can and does a superb job. Concepts which have been difficult for others to explain flow easily from Wolfe's pen. He brings us up-to-date and shares fascinating situations which show just how complex our world has become.
One of the most important concepts to take away from the book is that there is probably no single disease host or reservoir for any particular disease, as was previously thought. Rather, all species have a microbial repetoire, or a range of disease for which they might be a resevoir or host, whether or not they currently carry that microbe. Not finding a virus in a particular representative of an individual species does not mean it won't ever carry it. This is a radical and, to me, somewhat overwhelming departure from former theory: more possibilities exist for each disease than were previously even conceptualized.
Especially since there remains so much to discover--and so many. "We would be arrogant to assume that there are no other life forms remaining to be discovered here on Earth, and they are mostly likely to be members of the unseen world...If some highly advanced extraterrestrial species were to land on Earth and put together an encyclopedia of life based on which things made up most of Earth's diversity and biomass, the majority of it would be devoted to the unseen world." The human body alone is host to an amazing diversity of life--only about one in ten cells is human!
A significant portion of the book lays out our history and interrelationships with primates, specifically chimpanzees, since our closeness leads to microbes jumping from species to species. Wolfe does an excellent job of describing the dangers inherent in hunting primates and primates hunting us. He states that hunting and butchering is the most intimate act on the planet, whether you are a human doing the hunting or a chimp hunting a human baby. Wolfe is active with the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative's Health Hunter Program in central Africa, which teaches rural wild-game hunters the
risks inherent. "The problem of bushmeat is not a boutique issue for those wanting to save some charistmatic endangered species. It affects global health, and we cannot afford to ignore it."
Wolfe has written a clear and lucid account of the world status of viruses and disease prevention, ending with a well-reasoned and persuasive argument for funding and pandemic forecast work. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the current state of public health. ~Tessa J. Eger 5 out of 5 stars
One of the most important concepts to take away from the book is that there is probably no single disease host or reservoir for any particular disease, as was previously thought. Rather, all species have a microbial repetoire, or a range of disease for which they might be a resevoir or host, whether or not they currently carry that microbe. Not finding a virus in a particular representative of an individual species does not mean it won't ever carry it. This is a radical and, to me, somewhat overwhelming departure from former theory: more possibilities exist for each disease than were previously even conceptualized.
Especially since there remains so much to discover--and so many. "We would be arrogant to assume that there are no other life forms remaining to be discovered here on Earth, and they are mostly likely to be members of the unseen world...If some highly advanced extraterrestrial species were to land on Earth and put together an encyclopedia of life based on which things made up most of Earth's diversity and biomass, the majority of it would be devoted to the unseen world." The human body alone is host to an amazing diversity of life--only about one in ten cells is human!
A significant portion of the book lays out our history and interrelationships with primates, specifically chimpanzees, since our closeness leads to microbes jumping from species to species. Wolfe does an excellent job of describing the dangers inherent in hunting primates and primates hunting us. He states that hunting and butchering is the most intimate act on the planet, whether you are a human doing the hunting or a chimp hunting a human baby. Wolfe is active with the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative's Health Hunter Program in central Africa, which teaches rural wild-game hunters the
risks inherent. "The problem of bushmeat is not a boutique issue for those wanting to save some charistmatic endangered species. It affects global health, and we cannot afford to ignore it."
Wolfe has written a clear and lucid account of the world status of viruses and disease prevention, ending with a well-reasoned and persuasive argument for funding and pandemic forecast work. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the current state of public health. ~Tessa J. Eger 5 out of 5 stars
June 14, 2017
This book was easy to follow and understand, so it is good for its intended general audience. I do have to say it was dry in some spots, though. Many reviewers who already have knowledge in this field have panned the book for its simplicity and lack of new information, but that is not the target audience. There needs to be books at this level for people like me, who want a general understanding of the subject matter; the experts can get their information from peer reviewed articles in scientific journals.
As for the book itself, there were some interesting parts. I never thought much about viruses other than they are pesky things that make people sick. However, I was fascinated to learn that viruses actually time their release (hence the reason they lie dormant at times) and transmission passage to enhance their success at continuing its life cycle and ensure the success of their offspring. Its actually a bit chilling to think of them in that way, like little villains living in your body going "aha, the perfect time for spreading myself around is here!" The symptoms of some viruses, such as coughing, sneezing, etc., are designed to make sure that they are spread and continue to survive.
The most chilling part of this book for me was when the author talks about microbes that keep him awake at night. This is a case of knowing too much; ignorance can be bliss at times. He knows what potential there is for new viruses to emerge, as well as bio terror or bio error, and I imagine that knowledge can be pretty darn scary.
The last section was fascinating in terms of using cell phone data to pinpoint where natural disaster events are occurring as well as internet search terms to determine if pandemics are going to be occurring. The prospect of a pandemic of these new super bugs is scary, but maybe with the forecasting techniques the author describes, it can be controlled.
As for the book itself, there were some interesting parts. I never thought much about viruses other than they are pesky things that make people sick. However, I was fascinated to learn that viruses actually time their release (hence the reason they lie dormant at times) and transmission passage to enhance their success at continuing its life cycle and ensure the success of their offspring. Its actually a bit chilling to think of them in that way, like little villains living in your body going "aha, the perfect time for spreading myself around is here!" The symptoms of some viruses, such as coughing, sneezing, etc., are designed to make sure that they are spread and continue to survive.
The most chilling part of this book for me was when the author talks about microbes that keep him awake at night. This is a case of knowing too much; ignorance can be bliss at times. He knows what potential there is for new viruses to emerge, as well as bio terror or bio error, and I imagine that knowledge can be pretty darn scary.
The last section was fascinating in terms of using cell phone data to pinpoint where natural disaster events are occurring as well as internet search terms to determine if pandemics are going to be occurring. The prospect of a pandemic of these new super bugs is scary, but maybe with the forecasting techniques the author describes, it can be controlled.
March 27, 2021
The Viral Storm is a fast, informative overview of the human interaction with microbes and infectious diseases. It is a good book to start with if you are interested in epidemiology and the scary possibility of pandemics. Anyone who has kept abreast of the various outbreaks in the past quarter-century will be familiar with much of this information, eg. HIV, Ebola, Avian flu, SARS, etc. but there is also much that is new and interesting, for instance, the appearance of Monkeypox in the remote forests of central Africa.
Nathan Wolfe is a biologist with extensive experience in virology. He is the medical counterpart of the tornado chasers. While he is not a physician, he has a passion for pandemics and has been in many "hot spots" tracking contagions we should be grateful to know little about. Wolfe writes in an anecdotal and personal style. His writing is not particularly "tight." It is full of obvious repetitions, and autobiographical asides, which can be annoying because the eager reader senses that the pages could be better filled with more detailed information about the enigmatic and terrifying subject.
Within the genre of non-fiction narrative about the pathogenesis and social impact of contagious diseases, Jared Diamond's book, "Guns, Germs and Steel" is much better written. However, Diamond is more interested in the historical impact of diseases, and specifically to how they contributed to conquest, than to how these microbes "jump" from one species to another and spread.
Because microbes and diseases still seem so alien to us and are so potentially lethal, they hold the same power over our imaginations as monsters and dangerous animals. For this reason, medical narratives (but not clinical journal articles on which they are based, which are too technical to be accessible to most readers), will continue to inform and entertain readers.
Nathan Wolfe is a biologist with extensive experience in virology. He is the medical counterpart of the tornado chasers. While he is not a physician, he has a passion for pandemics and has been in many "hot spots" tracking contagions we should be grateful to know little about. Wolfe writes in an anecdotal and personal style. His writing is not particularly "tight." It is full of obvious repetitions, and autobiographical asides, which can be annoying because the eager reader senses that the pages could be better filled with more detailed information about the enigmatic and terrifying subject.
Within the genre of non-fiction narrative about the pathogenesis and social impact of contagious diseases, Jared Diamond's book, "Guns, Germs and Steel" is much better written. However, Diamond is more interested in the historical impact of diseases, and specifically to how they contributed to conquest, than to how these microbes "jump" from one species to another and spread.
Because microbes and diseases still seem so alien to us and are so potentially lethal, they hold the same power over our imaginations as monsters and dangerous animals. For this reason, medical narratives (but not clinical journal articles on which they are based, which are too technical to be accessible to most readers), will continue to inform and entertain readers.
February 4, 2018
If you’re already familiar with pop science books about diseases, this isn’t really going to surprise you any. It’s competently written, though at times the statistics are a little off (as another reviewer pointed out). I don’t agree that he’s too unduly alarmist, though; our current environmental and social conditions are just about perfect for a pandemic (viral or otherwise) to sweep through the world’s population. If you doubt it, The Great Influenza by John M. Barry should disabuse you of that notion, rapidly. And our world is more interconnected now, not less.
I hoped that this might be a little more in depth, given Wolfe being a biologist and all, but there’s nothing that really elevates it above other pop science books available. It’s honestly rather forgettable.
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
I hoped that this might be a little more in depth, given Wolfe being a biologist and all, but there’s nothing that really elevates it above other pop science books available. It’s honestly rather forgettable.
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
March 27, 2015
The author gives a fairly good look at how Virologist think and see the world. He'll explain in general terms how they see the world and what kind of work they do. I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who thinks they might want to enter the field or for those who have not read any other books on similar topics.
It's obvious to me that the author knows a whole lot more about the subject, but in order to keep the book interesting for the widest possible audience he usually only explains the field in the most general terms.
For me, I wish the author would have written a more detailed book and my expectations weren't met.
It's obvious to me that the author knows a whole lot more about the subject, but in order to keep the book interesting for the widest possible audience he usually only explains the field in the most general terms.
For me, I wish the author would have written a more detailed book and my expectations weren't met.
February 2, 2012
This is one of the best non-fiction science books I have read. Nathan Wolfe, a biologist, though I think virologist would be more accurate, takes us into the world of viruses and their implications for humanity. His steady pace and even-handed way of presenting the facts makes this a very readable book for a novice such as myself. His explanations of how viruses function, react to one another, mutate, and harness the will of their hosts are easily understandable without being overly simplistic. It was totally engrossing from start to finish.
January 24, 2012
Less provocative than the title would lead you to believe, this book basically is a primer for the microbial world and how viruses jump from one species to another and within species. Probably more fun than your microbiology textbook, laced with anecdotes about chimp research in Africa, etc., but not for those looking for an exciting read about why bird flu will kill us all.
August 19, 2016
What if we could develop the technology to predict where and when the next viral pandemic will pop up? How might we do this? In the book,
The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age
, American virologist Nathan Wolfe takes us from steamy African jungles into modern climate-controlled laboratories in pursuit of exotic viruses [Penguin Press, 2011: Amazon UK; Amazon US]. His goal: to identify which viruses show the potential to become the next deadly pandemic — and to stop them before they reach a global stage.
In this book, Wolfe describes how viruses exploit human behaviours to generate pandemics. One such quality is our love of travel. Wolfe writes:
But globe trotting is not enough. Viruses must “make the jump” from their original hosts, which they are specially adapted to infect, into the human population. They do this in two ways. Since viruses multiply quickly and have high mutation rates, they rapidly generate the genetic raw material necessary to create distinct strains capable of infecting new host populations.
Another viral strategy is gene swapping. Since animals are sometimes infected by a number of different viruses at the same time, they can act as a living laboratory where different types of viruses trade genetic information, giving rise to mosaic viruses with novel qualities. This novelty underlies the sudden appearance of new human pathogens, such as HIV, which is the mosaic offspring of two viruses that infected a chimpanzee that was subsequently eaten by human bushmeat hunters.
But bushmeat consumption is not the only source of new viral pathogens nor, perhaps, is it the primary one. Modern factory farming provides an important focal point for emerging viruses to adapt to humans. Wolfe writes: “There are now more than one billion cattle, one billion pigs, and over twenty billion chickens living on our planet” — more domestic animals are alive today than in the past ten thousand years of domestication through 1960 combined. Yet, these food animals are crammed together into fewer farms than ever before, providing microbes with unparalleled opportunities to infect to them, each individual animal acting as a potential gateway for viruses to invade the human population. Already, this chain of events has been documented for influenza and Nipah viruses, which relied on pigs as their living workbench.
Industrial farming also increases the number of animals (and their viruses) that any one human is exposed to, abolishing the direct relationship between one animal and a few people. Modern factory farming creates a web of connections between thousands of animals and thousands of consumers, such that “an average meat eater today will consume bits of millions of animals during their lifetimes.”
Of course, most of the world’s people now live in large cities that — from a virus’s point of view — are identical to a factory farm. Major urban centres provide viruses with a ready source of fresh hosts to infect, allowing viruses to improve their ability to move quickly through the population and to become more virulent along the way.
But where might these exotic viruses originate? Wolfe argues that central Africa, with its combination of “urbanisation, deforestation, road building and consumption of wild game”, presents a unique set of conditions that favour the emergence and spread of new viral infections to heavily populated regions of the world. Already, we’ve found these same areas provide avenues for cosmopolitan viruses, such as pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses, to invade even the most remote villages.
Although he states that we should be doing a better job dealing with pandemics, Wolfe is an optimist. In the last of this memoir’s three parts, he argues that emerging viral pandemics can be prevented. To that end, he co-founded a company, Global Viral Forecasting Initiative, that is establishing sentinel outposts in remote jungle locations where people still consume bushmeat, adapting the latest technologies to identify new diseases, and using rapid communication networks to track disease outbreaks.
I wanted very much to like this book unreservedly, but that was not the case. Repetitiveness and the irritating abuse of superlatives — “world renowned”, “excellent” and (my personal favourite) “perhaps the world’s greatest expert” — to describe Wolfe’s colleagues made the writing tedious at times. Although the diagrams are good, the photographs, all of which are black and white, are not: they are very small and grainy, making it difficult to discern any details without resorting to a magnifying glass. Several photographs added nothing of value to the story and at least one overtly detracted — a blonde female scientist, surrounded by a small crowd of male admirers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, applying make-up whilst peering into a motorbike mirror; a behaviour she apparently pulls off “with flare”. (I think the word the author wanted to use was “flair”, which we all know refers to “talent” instead of erupting into flames.) This is the only photograph depicting a female scientist in the entire book. In contrast, there are nine times as many pictures of male scientists, nearly all of whom are pictured doing lab or field work — conspicuously, none of the men are applying make-up.
Despite its flaws, this book presents important information and ideas that the public should be aware of. Microbiology students and professors will probably enjoy this narrative, and this book could make an eye-opening read whilst on a transoceanic flight.
NOTE: this book is included on the shortlist for the Royal Society’s 2012 Winton Prize for science books.
NOTE: Originally published at The Guardian on 26 November 2012.
In this book, Wolfe describes how viruses exploit human behaviours to generate pandemics. One such quality is our love of travel. Wolfe writes:
Over the past few hundred years, humans have constructed a radically interconnected world — a world … where humans can literally have their boots in the mud of Australia one day and in the rivers of the Amazon the next. This radically mobile world gives infectious agents … a truly global stage on which to act. We no longer live on a planet where pockets of life persist for centuries without contact with others. We now live on a microbially unified planet. For better or worse, it’s one world (italics the author’s). [p. 118]
But globe trotting is not enough. Viruses must “make the jump” from their original hosts, which they are specially adapted to infect, into the human population. They do this in two ways. Since viruses multiply quickly and have high mutation rates, they rapidly generate the genetic raw material necessary to create distinct strains capable of infecting new host populations.
Another viral strategy is gene swapping. Since animals are sometimes infected by a number of different viruses at the same time, they can act as a living laboratory where different types of viruses trade genetic information, giving rise to mosaic viruses with novel qualities. This novelty underlies the sudden appearance of new human pathogens, such as HIV, which is the mosaic offspring of two viruses that infected a chimpanzee that was subsequently eaten by human bushmeat hunters.
But bushmeat consumption is not the only source of new viral pathogens nor, perhaps, is it the primary one. Modern factory farming provides an important focal point for emerging viruses to adapt to humans. Wolfe writes: “There are now more than one billion cattle, one billion pigs, and over twenty billion chickens living on our planet” — more domestic animals are alive today than in the past ten thousand years of domestication through 1960 combined. Yet, these food animals are crammed together into fewer farms than ever before, providing microbes with unparalleled opportunities to infect to them, each individual animal acting as a potential gateway for viruses to invade the human population. Already, this chain of events has been documented for influenza and Nipah viruses, which relied on pigs as their living workbench.
Industrial farming also increases the number of animals (and their viruses) that any one human is exposed to, abolishing the direct relationship between one animal and a few people. Modern factory farming creates a web of connections between thousands of animals and thousands of consumers, such that “an average meat eater today will consume bits of millions of animals during their lifetimes.”
Of course, most of the world’s people now live in large cities that — from a virus’s point of view — are identical to a factory farm. Major urban centres provide viruses with a ready source of fresh hosts to infect, allowing viruses to improve their ability to move quickly through the population and to become more virulent along the way.
But where might these exotic viruses originate? Wolfe argues that central Africa, with its combination of “urbanisation, deforestation, road building and consumption of wild game”, presents a unique set of conditions that favour the emergence and spread of new viral infections to heavily populated regions of the world. Already, we’ve found these same areas provide avenues for cosmopolitan viruses, such as pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses, to invade even the most remote villages.
Although he states that we should be doing a better job dealing with pandemics, Wolfe is an optimist. In the last of this memoir’s three parts, he argues that emerging viral pandemics can be prevented. To that end, he co-founded a company, Global Viral Forecasting Initiative, that is establishing sentinel outposts in remote jungle locations where people still consume bushmeat, adapting the latest technologies to identify new diseases, and using rapid communication networks to track disease outbreaks.
I wanted very much to like this book unreservedly, but that was not the case. Repetitiveness and the irritating abuse of superlatives — “world renowned”, “excellent” and (my personal favourite) “perhaps the world’s greatest expert” — to describe Wolfe’s colleagues made the writing tedious at times. Although the diagrams are good, the photographs, all of which are black and white, are not: they are very small and grainy, making it difficult to discern any details without resorting to a magnifying glass. Several photographs added nothing of value to the story and at least one overtly detracted — a blonde female scientist, surrounded by a small crowd of male admirers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, applying make-up whilst peering into a motorbike mirror; a behaviour she apparently pulls off “with flare”. (I think the word the author wanted to use was “flair”, which we all know refers to “talent” instead of erupting into flames.) This is the only photograph depicting a female scientist in the entire book. In contrast, there are nine times as many pictures of male scientists, nearly all of whom are pictured doing lab or field work — conspicuously, none of the men are applying make-up.
Despite its flaws, this book presents important information and ideas that the public should be aware of. Microbiology students and professors will probably enjoy this narrative, and this book could make an eye-opening read whilst on a transoceanic flight.
NOTE: this book is included on the shortlist for the Royal Society’s 2012 Winton Prize for science books.
NOTE: Originally published at The Guardian on 26 November 2012.
June 15, 2016
Get our your Germ-X because there is a Viral Storm coming and we're all toast!
This book details how viruses evolve and adapt to overcome our fragile immune systems. The author posits it is only a matter of time before the ultimate virus comes along that will wipe out millions of people worldwide. Cheery thought, huh? The book is very interesting and does make for compelling, if not euphoric, reading. So go wash your hands and read up!
This book details how viruses evolve and adapt to overcome our fragile immune systems. The author posits it is only a matter of time before the ultimate virus comes along that will wipe out millions of people worldwide. Cheery thought, huh? The book is very interesting and does make for compelling, if not euphoric, reading. So go wash your hands and read up!
February 2, 2019
For those of us who are concerned about infectious diseases, pandemics, and their possible impact on the future, but don’t have a degree in virology, the author provides information in an easily understood manner. And while the name-dropping and personal accomplishments woven throughout may come across as a little braggy, they can also serve as reminders to the reader of the author’s first-hand experience and qualifications on the subject that garnered him invitations to work with so many experts in the field.
December 2, 2011
While it does paint a scary picture of our modern situation as a species, it's not a fear-mongering book. It's respectable on how it covers and weighs the various possible sources of epidemic novelties, and does a good job of showing that reliance on bush meat due to poverty is the key enemy in regions of most-likely-origin, not culture.
Included a nice 101 on the viral nature of humanity, the bulk of mute/defunct viruses our DNA includes.
Included a nice 101 on the viral nature of humanity, the bulk of mute/defunct viruses our DNA includes.
March 4, 2014
Loved this book, how it combined the science and the investigations of the diseases. While there is definitely a scary part of this story, there is also a promising part too. A dedicated core of health professionals worldwide is working 24/7 to protect us. They are learning more about past and future diseases and how they transfer between humans and animals.
The writing was engaging and the scientific explanation clear and help progress the story. Great pace.
The writing was engaging and the scientific explanation clear and help progress the story. Great pace.
July 10, 2012
Pretty interesting but not overwhelming, if you are already somewhat interested in viruses. Probably just an okay introduction to the subject if you don't already know much about it.
Also there were some usage errors that an editor should have caught. Like not knowing the difference between flair and flare, and an incorrect possessive plural (virus's instead of viruses') early on.
Also there were some usage errors that an editor should have caught. Like not knowing the difference between flair and flare, and an incorrect possessive plural (virus's instead of viruses') early on.
June 5, 2013
This book is currently scaring me to death.... I finally finished it. Thought-provoking... My only random question is why he makes little or no reference to sea-mammals and marine life in terms of bacteria and viruses... Maybe I forgot a chapter, or maybe that's another branch of research.....? I may visit his blog/website and ask.
Great book!
Great book!
January 14, 2018
I want to be this guy and do what he does! The author explains how infections can become epidemics and then pandemics. He also discusses how we could potentially prevent pandemics by isolating infections when they are in a smaller number of people. Fascinating.
December 8, 2011
Focuses a lot on the biological and anthropological origins of the AIDS epistemic. Definitely written for the layperson, at times maddening in its simplicity and lack of depth.
December 25, 2014
I love listening about pandemics and the new things they are doing to monitor
Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews