The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris

Each time humans have faced a pandemic, they have been woefully underprepared. A year ago, Mark Honigsbaum published this book to serve as a warning for the coming "germ x". In order to help society understand how important it is to prepare for pandemics, Honigsbaum detailed the last 100 years of pandemics that caught humans all over the globe by surprise. He did an excellent job of illustrating the biology happening in the animal body as well as the political and social scene that played out around each pandemic. The epilogue served to remind readers that if society did not do a good job of preparing for the next unforeseen pandemic, we could be almost as bad off as humans were in each of the pandemics encountered over the past 100 years. He highlighted the efforts put forth by Bill and Malinda Gates as well as Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan to help  equip the entire world for the pandemics that were not just probably to come, but *surely* to come. Honigsbaum made no mention of the fact that Trump fired the U.S. pandemic response team in 2018 to cut costs. <br /><br />Oddly, and quite enjoyably, Honigsbaum began his discussion of pandemics by demonstrating how they can sometimes act like unpredictable wild animals. For example, no one predicted the shark attacks of 1916 that occurred in the cool waters of the Jersey Shore because up to that point, the experts agreed that sharks enjoyed the relatively warmer waters from North Carolina and Southward. The same was true for the germs that cause Ebola. Those germs, like sharks, enjoy a warmer climate; so, no one expected Ebola to leave Central Africa in 2014 and travel to the colder climates of Europe and the United States. It caught everyone as much off guard as the 1916 shark attacks did. But it was not simply the warmer climates that helped ebola become a more successful virus. When the rain forests, where it lives, were left undisturbed, the virus was only as successful as it could be by infecting the local bats and chimps that lived atop the trees. However, when humans disrupted the rain forests, they did not simply displace the species of animals living in those forests, they displaced, and freed, the species of virus that was once largely contained. <br /><br />When humans came into contact with the bats or chimps who had the virus, the virus was able to spillover into humans. Both humans' immune systems and hospitals were underprepared for the encounter. Every time the immune system encounters something new, it suffers a learning curve. Its immune cells do not know how to hunt down and effectively attack a novel enemy. Hospitals treat the same illness each year. They are prepared for those illnesses. Doctors and nurses can get flu shots that help inoculate them from the flu and other illness. The immune systems of health care workers have encountered all the usual contagious illnesses. Workers are able to recognize the signs of familiar contagions. When something new makes its way through that hospital door, workers and other patients are extremely vulnerable because if you cannot recognize what type of illness is occurring, right away, you are unable to contain and treat it. Take for example the doctor who infected many many people with SARS. He walked into the hospital, was given a nebulizer for his shortness of breath (a very common treatment for shortness of breath), and ended up expelling infected air each time he breathed out the nebulizer mist. That mist carried the SARS virus through the entire wing. A virus that is unfamiliar to humans has a huge advantage. <br /><br />All of the pandemics were extremely interesting. I will detail a few. <br /><br />In 1918, the Spanish flu (so named only because the Spanish were the only ones being honest and not trying to cover up the fact that they had a dangerous flu circulating), was caused by the H1N1virus that was normally confined to birds, spilled over into humans and triggered the same type of deadly cytokine storm Covid 19 is causing presently. <br /><br />BTW, it is worth relaying what I just heard on Fox News from Kellyanne Conway this morning. Conway: "This is Covid 19, not Covid 1 folks, and so you would think....." the WHO would be on that, able to deal with that....... You know, since it's the 19th version of the virus. That would be hilarious if she and her scientifically illiterate colleagues were not in charge of our country. She actually thinks is the 19th version, despite that it's called the *novel* coronavirus. How can these people be in charge of anything, let alone an entire country?<br /><br />In the 1920s, the Bubonic Plague hit CA. By the 1920s, researchers knew a thing or two about disease, and so they were certain it was being caused by those dirty rats and the fleas who suck their infected blood and inject it into humans. But, as they tested rat and after rat, not a single rat tested positive for plague. The culprit ended up being fleas who were feasting on squirrels, not rats. So squirrels became public enemy number one. You probably look at those cute little squirrels today and don't worry too much about them harming you. Turns out, there are still about 17 deaths from plague a year. So, watch out for those squirrels. <br /><br />In 1929, humans were enamored with another cute set of animals. Who doesn't love a love bird, a finch, a beautiful and brilliant parrot, or a cute little parakeet? Certainly in 1929, there was no better way to say, "I love you," than to present your lover with a love bird.... and you know, the deadly Parrot Flu that came along with it. Birds in cages, who got sick, had diarrhea that often dried fairly quickly and turned to dust. When the birds flapped their wings, they sent the dust flying into the air and into human lungs. During this time, one theater group used a parrot in their play. During one scene, each actor took a turn petting the parrot. Only one actor survived. <br /><br />Interestingly, captive birds were at higher risk for catching and spreading psittacosis (Parrot Fever). This is because when birds in the wild catch it, the acquire life long immunity. However, when a bird is in captivity it causes extraordinary stress, which in turn compromises the immune systems of captive birds, making them no longer have immunity to something they previously had immunity for. For this reason, captive love birds, parrots, and parakeets caught the illness at higher rates than birds in the wild. Being caged with other birds also caused the rapid spread from bird to bird, and then to the humans with which the birds came in contact.<br /><br />I have been enjoying Ed Yong's Covid 19 articles published in The Atlantic. This book included similar information to what Yong has been sharing. I would love for Yong, who wrote, "I Contain Multitudes," to eventually write about Covid 19 and about pandemics in general. He is an exceptional writer. I recommend his articles. <br />The Chapter on AIDS was pretty informative. Better than other chapters/books I have read about AIDS. However, the chapter on Ebola was not nearly as good as David Quammen's Spillover. So, if you have not read that yet, I highly recommend it. <br /><br />One thing I found interesting is that NYC often served as the epicenter of pandemics when they reached the United States. That makes perfect sense, considering its role in America. It's a hub of business, travel, etc. Of course it would be hard hit in the past and now with Covid 19 spreading through our country. It is unfathomable to me that Trump, Kushner, and colleagues made it seem like it was NYC's fault for being so hard hit. Did NYC fire the pandemic readiness team? Kushner suggested that the federal stockpile of ventilators was not for states. As if to say, 'Duh, it's for the *federal* people!!" Um, Kushner, the federal stockpiles are for its people and should be distributed to those in need when a pandemic hits. <br /><br />**Added note: Considering the fact that China covered up Covid 19, it was interesting to read what lengths they went to in order to try to cover up SARS. Chinese citizens who wanted to get a true count had to sneak into different parts of China and secretly take samples to determine how many people were infected. There is a serious problem when a secretive government is in charge of funding part of the WHO. Trump has now taken from WHO the 400-500 million dollars of funding that is needed to fight a virus that is killing many Americans. Fight corruption (maybe fight his own corruption of calling Covid 19 a hoax!), work with world leader to put more trust worthy people in charge of WHO, or work to have the WHO rely less on Chinese funding. But, to defund WHO during a world health crisis is absurd! Trump has got to be one of the worst human being in history.

Thoroughly unnecessary. The intro promises some kind of a new paradigm for understanding pandemics, but opportunities to explore important new angles are merely hinted at. For example, on the very last page, the author mentions in passing that the WHO was accused of "faking" the 2009 "pandemic." Huh?! That's something that's not in the old flu books and would be worth investigating, particularly for the advertised focus of "panic, hysteria, and hubris." <br><br>Instead, the author just keeps echoing the bio-thriller themes familiar since Alfred Crosby's 1976 book about influenza. The content is like a series of long summaries of other books. <br><br>The writing is clunky with sentences like "If SARS was a calamity for Toronto, for Hong Kong it was a disaster." <br><br>The logic too is clunky with lots of internal contradictions. For example, we're told that we have made huge progress in understanding why the 1918 influenza was so virulent, but on the same page we learn that we have no idea why the 1918 flu was as deadly as it was or how to predict/prevent the recurrence of another pandemic. If you parse the individual sentences, the author is accurately parroting what experts have said, but he doesn't seem to connect the dots for the big picture of what is relevant for public health. This is symptomatic of a general confusion about the differences between germ/infection vs. person/illness vs. population/pandemic. All of that is pretty standard for the genre so not a particular weakness of this writer.<br><br>Some better books for this general topic: <br><a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/13594165.The_Great_Manchurian_Plague_of_1910_1911_The_Geopolitics_of_an_Epidemic_Disease" title="The Great Manchurian Plague of 1910-1911 The Geopolitics of an Epidemic Disease by William C. Summers" rel="noopener">The Great Manchurian Plague of 1910-1911: The Geopolitics of an Epidemic Disease</a><br><a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/630532.Evolution_of_Infectious_Disease" title="Evolution of Infectious Disease by Paul W. Ewald" rel="noopener">Evolution of Infectious Disease</a><br><a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/4205150.The_Origins_of_Human_Disease" title="The Origins of Human Disease by Thomas McKeown" rel="noopener">The Origins of Human Disease</a><br><a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/371062.Rats__Lice__and_History_Being_a_Study_in_Biography__Which__After_Twelve_Preliminary_Chapters_Indispensable_for_the_Preparation_of_the_Lay_Reader__Deals_With_the_Life_History_of_Typhus_Fever" title="Rats, Lice, and History Being a Study in Biography, Which, After Twelve Preliminary Chapters Indispensable for the Preparation of the Lay Reader, Deals With the Life History of Typhus Fever by Hans Zinsser" rel="noopener">Rats, Lice, and History: Being a Study in Biography, Which, After Twelve Preliminary Chapters Indispensable for the Preparation of the Lay Reader, Deals With the Life History of Typhus Fever</a><br><a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/1056205.The_Making_of_a_Tropical_Disease_A_Short_History_of_Malaria" title="The Making of a Tropical Disease A Short History of Malaria by Randall M. Packard" rel="noopener">The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria</a><br><br><a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/13594165.The_Great_Manchurian_Plague_of_1910_1911_The_Geopolitics_of_an_Epidemic_Disease" title="The Great Manchurian Plague of 1910-1911 The Geopolitics of an Epidemic Disease by William C. Summers" rel="noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348542626l/13594165._SY75_.jpg" alt="The Great Manchurian Plague of 1910-1911 The Geopolitics of an Epidemic Disease by William C. Summers" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a> <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/630532.Evolution_of_Infectious_Disease" title="Evolution of Infectious Disease by Paul W. Ewald" rel="noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347532805l/630532._SX50_.jpg" alt="Evolution of Infectious Disease by Paul W. Ewald" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a> <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/4205150.The_Origins_of_Human_Disease" title="The Origins of Human Disease by Thomas McKeown" rel="noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349012441l/4205150._SX50_.jpg" alt="The Origins of Human Disease by Thomas McKeown" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a> <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/371062.Rats__Lice__and_History_Being_a_Study_in_Biography__Which__After_Twelve_Preliminary_Chapters_Indispensable_for_the_Preparation_of_the_Lay_Reader__Deals_With_the_Life_History_of_Typhus_Fever" title="Rats, Lice, and History Being a Study in Biography, Which, After Twelve Preliminary Chapters Indispensable for the Preparation of the Lay Reader, Deals With the Life History of Typhus Fever by Hans Zinsser" rel="noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408913361l/371062._SX50_.jpg" alt="Rats, Lice, and History Being a Study in Biography, Which, After Twelve Preliminary Chapters Indispensable for the Preparation of the Lay Reader, Deals With the Life History of Typhus Fever by Hans Zinsser" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a> <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/1056205.The_Making_of_a_Tropical_Disease_A_Short_History_of_Malaria" title="The Making of a Tropical Disease A Short History of Malaria by Randall M. Packard" rel="noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348638140l/1056205._SY75_.jpg" alt="The Making of a Tropical Disease A Short History of Malaria by Randall M. Packard" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a>

I'm interested in public health, so when I spotted <u>The Pandemic Century</u> on the new book display at my local library, I picked it up. I have to say, though, my view of the book is mixed at best. I have read a bunch of other books about two of the epidemics that chapters of <u>The Pandemic Century</u> focused on: the 1918 flu epidemic most commonly known as the Spanish flu and the little known early 1900s plague epidemic in California. Neither portrayal/explanation of these two epidemics were particularly well done, and I would go as far as to say that, in some places, they are extremely misleading. <br /><br />For the first chapter with the 1918 flu, the author gives very strange and hard to follow explanations of flu spread. He claims to get these from John Barry's <u>The Great Influenza</u>, a fairly comprehensive dissection of the medical history, military history, science history, and (admittedly to a lesser extent) cultural history associated with World War I and the almost simultaneous spread of a very virulent flu into a pandemic. I have read that book, I can definitively say Honigsbaum's explanation and Barry's are nothing alike. For one, Barry's explanation is significantly more detailed and makes reference to military documentation, the best source of documentation available for the time. For two, Barry's explanation, though a bit long-winded, was significantly clearer and easier to understand. I came into <u>The Pandemic Century</u> with the background information provided by other books on the 1918 pandemic, and still couldn't follow what information the author was trying to convey about the flu's spread, and that's not a good sign. <br /><br />Additionally, Honigsbaum repeatedly makes the claim that no knows anything about various important information about the flu, such as why it was so virulent, why young adults (in their twenties and thirties) were the hardest age group hit, why it caused cyanosis, where it originated, and so on. This makes it sound like 1918 flu is big medical blind spot, and no one has any clue as to any of these and other topics, and that is simply not the case. How do we know this? Why, the author himself tells us so shortly after making this claim, telling readers a bit about some hypotheses and theories about some of the aforementioned topics, while then going on the say that there isn't medical evidence and all of those supposed explanations are just supposition. What the author does not tell readers is that, while medical evidence from a century ago is hard to come by and may not be entirely trustworthy, some of the theories mentioned are supported by the preponderance of evidence available from the time period and from other known medical facts/research. They are not the daydreams of doctors and researchers, and should not be treated as such. I felt that the author did a very poor job in his treatment of the 1918 pandemic on a whole, and an extremely poor job in his treatment of modern medical research about the 1918 pandemic in particular. For a better understanding of the 1918 pandemic, I highly suggest reading John M. Barry's <u>The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History</u> (found here: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29036.The_Great_Influenza">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...</a>) or, for an easier read, Kenneth C. Davis' <u>More Deadly Than War: The Hidden History of the Spanish Flu and the First World War</u> (found here: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35795927-more-deadly-than-war">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...</a>). Both are significantly better than Honigsbaum's sad excuse for an explanation as presented in <u>The Pandemic Century</u>. <br /><br />For the second chapter, on the 1900s plague outbreak, the author presents in the confusing timeline that simultaneously skips around and ignores the primary population affected by the plague. Honigsbaum begins the chapter by telling readers about the sickness and subsequent funeral of a Mexican family, using this is a storytelling device. Not terrible, except this ignores that plague outbreaks had begin years later, and began in the Chinese quarter; by the time this funeral had taken place, dozens of death of Chinese from plague had occurred, were continuing to occur, and that population had been under threat of racism-driven quarantine and destruction of their homes for years. The author takes a moment to tell readers this, then promptly goes back to ignoring the Chinese population and using Hispanic populations and sections of city as storytelling devices, despite the fact that they were victimized by the plague relatively late and did not make up most victims of the epidemic. This very narrow focus on the Hispanic population/sections - and later the white population/sections - presented a skewed and misleading picture of how the plague outbreak progressed and maintained itself in a major city over the course of literally decades. It was very disappointing and infuriating. For a better understanding of the early 1900s plague, I highly suggest David K. Randall's <u>Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague </u>(found here: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41817537-black-death-at-the-golden-gate">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...</a>) for the same reason as cited in the above paragraph. <br /><br />With both the first and second chapters - and their many, many flaws and misrepresentations in mind - I read the rest of book. I would say it was informative, though it focused too much on a how narrative rather than the why dissection promised by the title, except for the fact that <b>I do not trust what I've read</b>. That is not a good place to be in for a nonfiction work. With that in mind, The Pandemic Century is not a book that I would recommend. It is a book that would actively dissuade someone from reading, actually. If you are still considering reading it after this review, I highly suggest going for one of the three other books referenced here - <u>The Great Influenza</u>, <u>More Deadly Than War</u>, <u>Black Death at the Golden Gate</u> - as they will give you a more informative reading experience than Honigsbaum's book.

thanks to netgalley and the publishers for a free copy copy in return for an open and honest review<br /><br />This book has been updated since the hardback edition to include Covid19 virus which is currently spreading around the world. found this book interesting to learn about different pandemics since the spanish flu of 1918 and hows humans interact with ecology and nature which can created new virus to test the human body from Sars, Hiv, Aids, Parrott fever and man continual fight against new virus. The book itself was detailed with facts and being highly topical as well.

I had hoped for a book that moved beyond the medical paradigm to explore how pandemics impact the social, political, and cultural sphere. This is not that book. Although there are a few interesting discussions about how technological advances have left us vulnerable to new diseases and how media coverage impacts scientific research of disease outbreaks both positively and negatively, such topics are never fully explored. The human dimension of pandemics hinted at in the book's subtitle never materializes as a topic in its own right. This omission is unfortunate, given the COVID-19 pandemic has made abundantly clear that much more is at stake during a pandemic than the ability of medical science to respond: Lives and jobs are lost; racial inequities are exposed; political careers are broken and made; the educational and social network system are both placed under huge strains; tensions between nations ebb or rise depending on the level of global cooperation in fighting the pandemic -- to name just a few of the ways that pandemics redefine a society and the relations between societies.<br /><br />Equally problematic for me was that it was unclear how the author was defining pandemic. While certainly the 1918 influenza outbreak and the AIDS crisis fit the standard definition of a pandemic, that is, an epidemic that spreads to multiple countries or continents, the 1976 Philadelphia Legionnaire's Disease outbreak, covered in chapter 3, does not meet that criteria. Moreover, even in covering true pandemics, the author largely focuses on events within the United States. Admittedly he does reference medical discoveries from other parts of the world relevant to each pandemic; yet still the primary focus remains on how the US medical community responded to these outbreaks.

Non-fiction isn't something I frequently read, but this seemed highly topical and a way to introduce myself back into reading non-fiction. However, whilst there are some really interesting facts in here, and it covers the main pandemics of the century in detail, it suffers significantly from a few crucial flaws that heavily impacted on my enjoyment of the book as a whole. <br /><br />Firstly, the vast majority of the book is completely US-centric, with other countries getting barely a mention in passing even when they were the originating point of the pandemic or significant scientific advances were made there. Second, the timelines throughout the chapters are often choppy, moving backwards and forward at will with a lot of technical jargon, making it difficult for a layman to follow. This wouldn't be such an issue if the book were aimed at an academic audience who are already literate in the subject, but I doubt there is anything new here for that audience. Instead it is more of an overview, and aimed squarely at the interested layperson. Finally, the title makes it seem more sociologically based than it really is. In reality, this is a summery of the epidemiology, the medical advances and the history of the diseases. I was expecting far more of an exploration of the politics, the media reporting and the social reactions to the various pandemics than I actually got.<br /><br />To use a handful of the chapters to illustrate my points; the first chapters cover Spanish Flu and the Pneumonic Plague 'epidemic' in Los Angeles. I use the word epidemic deliberately, because there is a single line in the entire chapter dedicated to stating that the disease made it out of Los Angeles and into Europe. Both chapters are entirely focussed on the USA, and if I hadn't known how badly Spanish Flu crippled Europe, I would be none the wiser for having read this book. The same can be seen in the third chapter dedicated to Parrot Fever, where there is approximately a paragraph about other countries, and whilst Legionaires may have been a pandemic, the entirety of chapter four is focussed on the Philidelphia outbreak, which certainly wasn't. When Honigsbaum finally gets around to acknowledging the rest of the world exists in chapter five, it's a single sentence about Spain. I did find that the second half of the book was less US centric, and it worked very much to it's favour. The chapters on AIDS, SARS, Ebola and Zika were therefore some of the strongest in the book, simply because they widened the scope so heavily without losing the close up picture of the disasters in human lives.<br /><br />The issues with the confusing timelines is an issue present in every chapter to one degree or another, but is most notable in the first two chapters and the Ebola chapter. This is compounded by how many different names and individuals are involved throughout. This was necessary as research was being done on multiple fronts, but because of the structure, you lose sight of individuals until they pop up again pages later with no additional explanation. Considering the complexity of some of the scientific rationale and epidemiology, the skipping timelines just added an additional and completely unnecessary complication to the book. The only points where this really sticks to a straight forward timeline is in chapter four leading into chapter five, where the Philly outbreak was a precursor to the later Legionaire's pandemic. But because of that, chapter four was almost entirely superfluous and Honigsbaum spent a significant amount of time in chapter five referring back to chapter four. These chapters could have been condensed into one without any issues.<br /><br />Finally, I don't think Honigsbaum really captured the balance of scientific and sociological that he intended to. Considering the title includes the words 'Panic, Hysteria and Hubris', I don't think my expectations were unreasonable that this would focus more heavily on the sociological ramifications of the pandemics than it actually did. Once again, there was a notable difference between the first and second half of the novel; there was a heavier focus on the political and social aspects from AIDS onward. Prior to that however, the chapters are almost entirely focussed on epidemiology and scientific research. Likewise, it is mainly in the later chapters that Honigsbaum really starts linking the spread of disease and disease management measures to the impact humanity has had on the natural world over the last century. However, even in these later chapters Honingsbaum's primary focus always seems to be the origins and discovery of the epidemic rather than the social ramidications.<br /><br />That said, there were some fascinating aspects of this book that I had no understanding or knowledge of previously; the zoonotic origins of many of these pandemics for example and just how they managed to break the species barriers to infect humans. Many of these diseases have originated from animals, whether that be bats, birds, pigs or even civets, and Honigsbaum does a good job at exploring these possibilities and the methods of transmission. Likewise, he explores how misconceptions and assumptions in the scientific world can cause long delays in understanding a pandemic, with clear examples throughout. I also personally found the chapter on Parrot Fever fascinating, partly because I had never heard of this particular pandemic but also because of how much I could read behind the lines about the nature of humanity. Faced with a disease that has no human to human transmission, the solution seems simple; stop buying the damn birds. <br /><br />I also felt that the final three chapters of the book were by far the strongest, and the reason for that has been touched on above. They are significantly less US centric and focus more on public perception, the struggles of the medical world to gain traction or recognition and the impact of political decisions on ground level medicine. For AIDS, this largely came about in the form of bias and the belief that it was a 'gay disease', making it difficult to find funding or support on the scale that is needed for research. For SARS, there was an exploration of how the Chinese government attempted to cover up the emergence of the virus but also how the pandemic put medical lives in danger, through lack of protective equipment and measures. I also found it interesting that Honigsbaum stresses the importance of the 'draconian measures' put in place to control the disease in China, noting that these would meet resistance in America... which has proven to be true. <br /><br />The impact of public perception on the safety of medical staff is then stressed further in the Ebola chapter, putting them at risk of beatings and death, and how these fears were compounded by the banning of funeral rites and traditions that are incredibly important in communities. Whilst the Zika chapter highlights the heart-breaking impact on young women left with severely brain damaged infants and a complete lack of support once the initial fervour of the pandemic dies down. In addition, all of these chapters did a good job of exploring how mankind has helped to bring these new pandemics on themselves, through quick and affordable transport across the globe, deforestation and the impact that has on animal behaviour, population spikes in poorly sanitised areas and a lack of education of the affected populations. <br /><br />So... this is a mixed bag. There's some interesting information here, but it is often poorly presented with a disjointed timeline and dense medical jargon. For all that, it is clearly intended to be a layman's offering rather than a highly academic tome and it doesn't quite manage it, instead trying to straddle both lanes and doing it badly. It isn't specialist or technical enough for anyone actively working in those fields, and yet it's confusing structure and scientific jargon make it a difficult entry level book. <br /><br />Note: I believe later editions have a chapter on coronavirus. My edition did not include this, so I cannot comment.<br /><br />Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.<br /><br />Further reading from this and from other reviews on the topic:<br />- <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/29036.The_Great_Influenza_The_Story_of_the_Deadliest_Pandemic_in_History" title="The Great Influenza The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry" rel="noopener">The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History</a> by John Barry<br />- <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/35795927.More_Deadly_Than_War_The_Hidden_History_of_the_Spanish_Flu_and_the_First_World_War" title="More Deadly Than War The Hidden History of the Spanish Flu and the First World War by Kenneth C. Davis" rel="noopener">More Deadly Than War: The Hidden History of the Spanish Flu and the First World War</a> by Kenneth C. Davis<br />- <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/41817537.Black_Death_at_the_Golden_Gate_The_Race_to_Save_America_from_the_Bubonic_Plague" title="Black Death at the Golden Gate The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague by David K. Randall" rel="noopener">Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague</a> by David K. Randall<br />- <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/28212.And_the_Band_Played_On_Politics__People__and_the_AIDS_Epidemic" title="And the Band Played On Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts" rel="noopener">And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic</a> by Randy Shilts<br />- <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/12242615.The_Origins_of_AIDS" title="The Origins of AIDS by Jacques Pépin" rel="noopener">The Origins of AIDS</a> by Jacques Pepin<br />- <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/16213.The_Hot_Zone_The_Terrifying_True_Story_of_the_Origins_of_the_Ebola_Virus" title="The Hot Zone The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston" rel="noopener">The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus</a> by Richard Preston<br />- <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/30046999.Zika_The_Emerging_Epidemic" title="Zika The Emerging Epidemic by Donald G. McNeil" rel="noopener">Zika: The Emerging Epidemic</a> by Donald G. McNeil<br /><br />- <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/17573681.Spillover_Animal_Infections_and_the_Next_Human_Pandemic" title="Spillover Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen" rel="noopener">Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic</a> by David Quammen<br />- <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/52375.Illness_as_Metaphor_and_AIDS_and_Its_Metaphors" title="Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag" rel="noopener">Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors</a> by Susan Sonntag<br />- <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/1051512.Men_Against_Death" title="Men Against Death by Paul de Kruif" rel="noopener">Men Against Death</a> by Paul de Kruif (historical, published 1922)

3 1/2 stars, rounded up because I "read' this with my ears and that might have contributed to my attention wandering issue.<br /><br />There is a whole lot here that's interesting. Governmental and public response to outbreaks of infectious disease apparently don't change much. With each disease, Honigsbaum describes governmental denial, footdragging, and cover-up, and the public's inclinations to latch onto conspiracy theories and resist preventative measures suggested by doctors and scientists. Anti-vaxxers and snake oil salesmen have been around for quite a while.<br /><br />Honigsbaum provides a lot of detail, and my mind frequently wandered while I was listening. Not sure if the problem was the book or me, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.

This book is massive and really in depth. Too in depth for what I'm interested in but very well written and researched. <br /><br />It has every plague every doctor every research every scientist every news report about everything lol Which is amazing if you're super interested in the topic. This is why I gave it 4/5 stars, would I read it again? Proooobably not lol it's a bit TMI<br /><br />Parrot fever was something I had never heard about so that was pretty interesting

<blockquote>"Whether familiar or not, however, each of these epidemics illustrates how quickly the received medical wisdom can be overturned by the emergence of new pathogens and how, in the absence of laboratory knowledge and effective vaccines and treatment drugs, such epidemics have an unusual power to provoke panic, hysteria, and dread."</blockquote><br />The longer it has been since I finished this read, the more I find myself thinking about it--particularly in light of current world events. Often when science isn't advanced enough for a causal analysis for the source of an event, the wrong conclusion is decided on. This book chronicle some of those events, and how medical professionals got it wrong, not for lack of trying but mainly due to limitations during their lifetime. <br /><br />The author also documents that little has changed with regard to the public as a whole and their response to a health crisis, but also peppers the chapters with real changes that occurred over the last century as direct consequence of things we learned the hard way. <br /><br />It's also full of random facts, like did you know that farmers used to dip produce in raw sewage on their way into the city because urine gave the leaves a fresher appearance? What about that there was a parrot flu spread by door-to-door parrot salesmen? Yes, evidently door-to-door parrot salesman was also a thing. There were also squirrels carrying a form of the plague who hopped the train-lines up and down the west coast before doctors of the time could figure out how it was spreading. <br /><br />If you have an interest in the history of disease, or more random facts like those listed above, then you definitely want to pick this up.

I have read many books on the different kinds of plagues and pandemics throughout history. This book provides of good summary of many with a large focus on Zika Virus, which was new at the time. Overall, I felt it provided good information and also referenced other books I have read.