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Virus: Vaccinations, the CDC, and the Hijacking of America's Response to the Pandemic
New York Times bestselling author Nina Burleigh weaves together the key narrative strands to create an uncompromising and highly informed expose about our shared global pandemic experience and what it means for our future Vaccinations, the CDC, and the Hijacking of America’s Response to the Pandemic takes readers on an extraordinary journey from the medical science of viruses and vaccines, to conspiracy theories, through the history of knowledge, to the precipice—where we are now—of uncertainty about the future. This is not a book for those who think they already know how the story ends, but one that asks the tough questions in terse, hard-hitting paragraphs and chapters. Virus walks a tightrope wire, in the same way that nearly all Americans are already doing, and does not presume our lives will be saved by any one approach or answer, or that any side has ownership of the truth, but puts us on a path towards a better understanding of what just happened to us and where we’re likely to be headed when, not if, the next virus appears. Here • The true story behind the triumph of science in an era of unprecedented science denialism; • The other true story of government malfeasance that brought the U.S. to its knees and saw more Americans die from the pandemic than in any other nation; • An eye-opening series of interviews with researchers and creators of the mRNA vaccine, its test subjects, and other key figures; • The history behind one of the great medical the astonishingly fast development and clinical deployment of the first mRNA vaccine, and how it will change the way medicine is practiced in the future; • The alternate reality of bizarre conspiracy theories that undergird pandemic denialism and vaccine hesitancy; • The return of eugenics and how shock doctrine capitalism, crony corruption and extreme free ideology killed people of color, the poor, and the frail; • An assessment of the lessons learned and opportunities lost and what this will mean for the future of our democracy and our people. Virus includes original research and interviews with many key figures and experts including MIT engineer (“The Edison of Medicine”) and Moderna founder Robert Langer, Stanford microbiologist David Relman, first mRNA clinical trial (Seattle) participant Missy Pena, medical anthropologist Martha Louise Lincoln, among many others, and a deep reading of publicly available documents and reporting.
195 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 18, 2021
17 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Nina Burleigh
18 books57 followersNina is an award-winning author and journalist and documentary producer with wide-ranging interests including politics, history, conservation, exploration and science. She has written seven books and has been published in the New Yorker, Time, New York and People, among many other journals and rags. She publishes a national political substack called American Freakshow. She has occasionally shellacked her hair for television, including Good Morning America, Nightline, and various programs on CNN and C-Span, as well as flogged books on NPR and countless radio outlets.
The daughter of author and artist Robert Burleigh and Berta Burleigh, a teacher who emigrated to the USA from Iraq in the 1950s, Nina was born and educated in the Midwest, has traveled extensively in the Middle East and lived in Italy and France. She covered the Clinton White House for Time and reported and wrote human interest stories at People Magazine from New York. She is an adjunct professor at New York University and has lectured in Norway, Mexico, Italy and around the US..
Her first novel, Zero Visibility Possible, will be published in 2024, the first in a trilogy of dark satires about characters grappling with aspects of climate change, conspiracy theories and disinformation.
Her nonfiction books include The Trump Women: Part of the Deal, a lively study of the women in Trump's world; Unholy Business, a true tale of how modern science is being used to support the curious world of biblical relic trade and forgery; her book about Napoleon's scientists in Egypt, Mirage, was selected by the New York Times as an editors' choice and won the Society of Women Educators' Award in 2008.
The daughter of author and artist Robert Burleigh and Berta Burleigh, a teacher who emigrated to the USA from Iraq in the 1950s, Nina was born and educated in the Midwest, has traveled extensively in the Middle East and lived in Italy and France. She covered the Clinton White House for Time and reported and wrote human interest stories at People Magazine from New York. She is an adjunct professor at New York University and has lectured in Norway, Mexico, Italy and around the US..
Her first novel, Zero Visibility Possible, will be published in 2024, the first in a trilogy of dark satires about characters grappling with aspects of climate change, conspiracy theories and disinformation.
Her nonfiction books include The Trump Women: Part of the Deal, a lively study of the women in Trump's world; Unholy Business, a true tale of how modern science is being used to support the curious world of biblical relic trade and forgery; her book about Napoleon's scientists in Egypt, Mirage, was selected by the New York Times as an editors' choice and won the Society of Women Educators' Award in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
Want to read
February 11, 2022I thought I was ready to read about the virus. And I was ready to read about the science of the pandemic. What I was not prepared for was reading about a certain fat fuck former president and that's how the story opens, with him at a standard shit show of a press conference at the CDC and I....just.......couldn't relive what that was like. It was like my whole skeletal structure refused to pick up the book.
But I bought this book in hardback so I'm going to read it eventually, skeleton.
But I bought this book in hardback so I'm going to read it eventually, skeleton.
September 8, 2021
Dan Simon gets an F for his work as editor.
Chapter 1 read like a Twitter screed and while I didn't disagree with the author's sentiments she diminished herself with her unprofessional style. Burleigh could have made her points very easily by recounting the events of the prior year and using the administration's actions and quotes to speak for themselves. Instead she let her contempt (which I share) get in the way and make her look like a stone thrower. Someone was described as yellow eyed (to make them look like a snake?), Pence was described as standing by in wax figure mode, Drs. Birx and Redfield were described as religious fanatics whose faith got in the way of their professionalism. It was all too much and significantly damaged her message. (I finally got tired of the flame throwing and highlighted some passages to mark some examples.) Much of the material in the first chapter was covered in the book "I Alone Can Fix It" by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker and IACFI is a far superior book. The authors provided a chronicle and largely got out of the way and the effect was profound.
Burleigh's book did get much better and I'm glad I finished it. The second chapter talked about vaccines and their history. Very good material, very informative but if you've read almost any of Paul Offit's books (which I recommend) you've read the material before.
Chapter 3 covers vaccines and related research in 2020 and is excellent. It's the highlight of the book.
Chapter 4 gets into conspiracy theories about vaccines and is also very good.
The final chapter is a bit of a mishmash about government, big tech, public health and equality. Some good and interesting points are made but it never really feels unified.
This has the makings of a good book but it sorely needs better editing and a clearer objective.
Chapter 1 read like a Twitter screed and while I didn't disagree with the author's sentiments she diminished herself with her unprofessional style. Burleigh could have made her points very easily by recounting the events of the prior year and using the administration's actions and quotes to speak for themselves. Instead she let her contempt (which I share) get in the way and make her look like a stone thrower. Someone was described as yellow eyed (to make them look like a snake?), Pence was described as standing by in wax figure mode, Drs. Birx and Redfield were described as religious fanatics whose faith got in the way of their professionalism. It was all too much and significantly damaged her message. (I finally got tired of the flame throwing and highlighted some passages to mark some examples.) Much of the material in the first chapter was covered in the book "I Alone Can Fix It" by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker and IACFI is a far superior book. The authors provided a chronicle and largely got out of the way and the effect was profound.
Burleigh's book did get much better and I'm glad I finished it. The second chapter talked about vaccines and their history. Very good material, very informative but if you've read almost any of Paul Offit's books (which I recommend) you've read the material before.
Chapter 3 covers vaccines and related research in 2020 and is excellent. It's the highlight of the book.
Chapter 4 gets into conspiracy theories about vaccines and is also very good.
The final chapter is a bit of a mishmash about government, big tech, public health and equality. Some good and interesting points are made but it never really feels unified.
This has the makings of a good book but it sorely needs better editing and a clearer objective.
June 25, 2021
At under 200 pages, this is a thorough but succinct look back at our pandemic year. Ms. Burleigh covers the politics and the science to discover what went wrong and what we would need to correct before the next pandemic hits, and she warns that there will be a next time. Her writing is very accessible and sometimes actually amusing---in a gallows humor sort of way. Still, it is rather like reading a thriller for which you know the ending, but are compelled to keep reading anyway. The author has done all of the research for you, so if you want a deeper understanding of our recent history in a compact form, this book will fill the bill.
August 19, 2021
Since the pandemic, many authors have rushed to get books out, and I’ve read a few of them. My main concern is that they’ll all just say the same things and have the same information, but this one from Nina Burleigh is unique, and I loved it. Nina is inquisitive and does a fantastic job diving into how the world reacted to the pandemic and where we failed and succeeded. There were many stories in this book about different governments and people that I was unaware of, and she also explained quite a few topics around COVID that I didn’t fully understand. This is a fantastic book, and I definitely recommend it.
June 4, 2021
The experience of reading Nina Burleigh‘s “Virus,” was much the same as reading Hillary Clinton‘s “What Happened.” It’s the effort to understand what is happening to us, how we got here, and lessons learned moving forward, all in real time. I will say however that I did not walk away from this book sanguine about our future, despite the innovations of the past year to combat and possibly even prevent future pandemics. My fears are less about another biological virus than the virus of willful ignorance so prevalent in American society. That’s what’s really eating us alive.
August 3, 2021
Parallel universes intertwined: the advancement of science and discovery versus the downward spiral and knee-jerking of Administration 45. An entertaining--and often depressing--story of growth versus hindrance.
August 12, 2021
Burleigh makes no attempt to hide her opinion about Donald Trump and his administration's response to the COVID pandemic. She considers him completely unprepared to be the POTUS and his administration to be inadequate to meet the challenge of the crisis. Although she admits some missteps by the World Health Organization, the CDC, and Dr. Fauci, for the most part she thinks they did the best they could with the resources they had at their disposal, which were diminished because of President Trump's unwillingness to accept the dire circumstances and the need for scientific expertise to save lives.
Using direct quotes from press conferences and public briefings, Burleigh presents the President as being so wrapped up in his own ego and so desperate for the spotlight that he couldn't get out of the way to let his own medical advisers do their jobs. His sole priority throughout the early months of the crisis was to protect the economy, more specifically the stock market, from taking a hit because the rising market was his express train to re-election. So he was compelled to downplay the dangers of the pandemic and blame the disruption it caused on his perceived adversaries (China, WHO, United Nations, Democrats, etc.).
In the second half of the book, the author focuses less on President Trump and more on the science behind the virus, the development of vaccines, the resistance to vaccination, and the impact of the pandemic thus far. She still takes every opportunity to insert the snark about Trump and his team, which for the most part, is deserved. She tries to be objective, but her obvious disdain for Trump continually surfaces in the narrative. This is an early look at a global crisis, and the recent surge from the Delta variant came along too late to be considered in the book. No doubt, other developments will make some of Burleigh's points inaccurate or irrelevant, but as an initial critical look at America's response to the pandemic, it succeeds.
Using direct quotes from press conferences and public briefings, Burleigh presents the President as being so wrapped up in his own ego and so desperate for the spotlight that he couldn't get out of the way to let his own medical advisers do their jobs. His sole priority throughout the early months of the crisis was to protect the economy, more specifically the stock market, from taking a hit because the rising market was his express train to re-election. So he was compelled to downplay the dangers of the pandemic and blame the disruption it caused on his perceived adversaries (China, WHO, United Nations, Democrats, etc.).
In the second half of the book, the author focuses less on President Trump and more on the science behind the virus, the development of vaccines, the resistance to vaccination, and the impact of the pandemic thus far. She still takes every opportunity to insert the snark about Trump and his team, which for the most part, is deserved. She tries to be objective, but her obvious disdain for Trump continually surfaces in the narrative. This is an early look at a global crisis, and the recent surge from the Delta variant came along too late to be considered in the book. No doubt, other developments will make some of Burleigh's points inaccurate or irrelevant, but as an initial critical look at America's response to the pandemic, it succeeds.
June 21, 2021
A hard hitting, yet at times almost funny, view of human history and the decline of American society that ends by both highlighting the amazing progress of humankind while simultaneously demonstrating the worst of all of us. A wonderfully written encapsulation of the horrible, shitty, and yet transformative 15 months those of us who survived have been lucky enough to endure.
May 6, 2022
I enjoyed this book. I liked the conversational writing style and the wealth of information provided. I think that the information is accurate and the book does a good job of attributing responsibility for the many errors made early on in the pandemic. This book is as good as Dr. Scott Gottlieb’s “Uncontrolled Spread” and better than Dr. Nicole Saphier’s “Panic Attack” on the same subject. There were a few weaknesses however. I think some of the scientific information was simplified so much it became inaccurate, but it is important to note that these simplifications do not affect the author’s thesis at all. I also found the discussion of the repeatedly debunked lab leak hypothesis was weak. The biggest weakness for me is the use of insulting and demeaning language aimed at certain parties. I understand the author’s antipathy but I think the book would have been better without it. Overall, this book is well worth reading. Thank you to Netgalley and Seven Stories Press for the digital review copy.
July 26, 2021
An excellent replay of the past 18 months, and confirmation that what we saw happening actually happened. Highly recommended. (Great bibliography, too.)
January 7, 2022
Collection of chapters that felt disjointed and rambling. One or two chapters on the history of viruses were informative to a small degree.
May 29, 2023
"Are you really that stupid or are you just pretending"? Says it all, really
January 19, 2022
Fast Paced, Scathing, Raw, and Informative describe this read for me. We start in the White House after the start of the pandemic and follow the initial response all the way to present day. This book is definitely opinionated and doesn't hold back. However, it raises some great questions like:
How did we almost "run out" of PPE? Why did billionaires collectively add $1.62 trillion to their net worth during an economic crisis? What was life like during those initial months for doctors located at ground zero?
All of these questions are tackled in this read and I learned so much. I honestly wish I would have read it sooner so I could have known what to research and had better talking points for conversation. This book is really good and covers all the bases including not too bogged down mechanisms for the virus itself as well as the vaccine.
I will say, I don't disagree with the author on the points that are made throughout this book. However, this style of writing and language used doesn't read like a professional conversation. It is very scathing and at some points strictly opinion versus fact. Like I said, while I agree with these sentiments, it almost made me feel like I wasn't reading something valuable because it is more like an opinion piece.
Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
How did we almost "run out" of PPE? Why did billionaires collectively add $1.62 trillion to their net worth during an economic crisis? What was life like during those initial months for doctors located at ground zero?
All of these questions are tackled in this read and I learned so much. I honestly wish I would have read it sooner so I could have known what to research and had better talking points for conversation. This book is really good and covers all the bases including not too bogged down mechanisms for the virus itself as well as the vaccine.
I will say, I don't disagree with the author on the points that are made throughout this book. However, this style of writing and language used doesn't read like a professional conversation. It is very scathing and at some points strictly opinion versus fact. Like I said, while I agree with these sentiments, it almost made me feel like I wasn't reading something valuable because it is more like an opinion piece.
Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews