Apollo's Arrow, by Nicholas A. Christakis (Bookshop.org) It seemed to me that the novel coronavirus was a threat that was both wholly new and deeply ancient. Yale sociologist, public health educator, and former hospice physician Nicholas A. Christakis's Apollo's Arrow covers the coronavirus pandemic, drawing comparisons to previous plagues and pandemics from history and mythology,... Continue Reading →
A Primer on the “Spillover” of Zoonotic Infections
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, by David Quammen (Amazon) The purpose of this book is not to make you more worried. The purpose of this book is to make you more smart. I bought this book as soon as COVID-19 appeared in the US for the above reason. I completely understand why... Continue Reading →
Nonfiction Reading for Locked Down Times
What strange times we find ourselves in, huh? I hope everyone is healthy and safe wherever you are in the world, and please, for the love of everything, listen to the medical HBIC who's just trying to help us put this nightmare in the past. He knows that of which he speaks. Lists are popping... Continue Reading →
Richard Preston Tells Stories from Within Ebola’s Deadliest Outbreak
Book review: Crisis in the Red Zone, by Richard Preston (Amazon / Book Depository) Viruses are the undead of the living world, the zombies of deep time. Nobody knows the origin of viruses--how they came into existence or when they appeared in the history of life on earth. Viruses may be examples or relics of... Continue Reading →
Narrative Nonfiction Classic on Ebola’s Origins
Book review: The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston (Amazon / Book Depository) Nature is anything but simple. This emerging virus was like a bat crossing the sky at evening. Just when you thought you saw it flicker through your field of view, it was gone. Richard Preston's 1994 bestseller about the origins of Ebolavirus and... Continue Reading →
A Life-Saving Medical Treatment, Both Cutting-Edge and Historical, Succeeds Where All Else Failed
Book review: The Perfect Predator, by Steffanie Strathdee and Thomas Patterson (Amazon / Book Depository) In November 2015, globetrotting epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee was on vacation with her husband, psychologist and psychiatry professor Tom Patterson, exploring pyramids in Egypt when Tom fell suddenly and violently ill. They initially suspected food poisoning, but it quickly became clear... Continue Reading →