The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett | Goodreads
The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
by Laurie Garrett
4.18 · Rating details · 9,191 ratings · 357 reviews
Unpurified drinking water. Improper use of antibiotics. Local warfare. Massive refugee migration. Changing social and environmental conditions around the world have fostered the spread of new and potentially devastating viruses and diseases—HIV, Lassa, Ebola, and others. Laurie Garrett takes you on a fifty-year journey through the world's battles with microbes and examines the worldwide conditions that have culminated in recurrent outbreaks of newly discovered diseases, epidemics of diseases migrating to new areas, and mutated old diseases that are no longer curable. She argues that it is not too late to take action to prevent the further onslaught of viruses and microbes, and offers possible solutions for a healthier future. (less)
Paperback, 750 pages
Published October 1st 1995 by Penguin Books (first published 1994)
Original Title
The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
----
Mar 05, 2020
Sci-(Fi) Nerd Mario rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 0-biology
A 25 year old, unheard, ignored Cassandra call full of detailed descriptions, this book deals with the question of how the evolution of killer viruses, potential pandemics, plagues, sexually transmitted epidemics,... may continue in the future.
Garrett describes the connection of third world poverty and the spread of diseases, something completely ignored by mainstream media because of the political and economic implications, except an epidemic gets too extreme and gets NIMBY. This, chapter 14, named "Thirdworldization" is a reason for shame for the rich, industrialized countries, but what is not?
The general question is, as so often, not if, but more when, how, where and hopefully not me.
When: There are many ticking time bombs, be it manmade problems with superbugs due to
- overuse of antibiotics,
- urbanization with more and more people living close together,
- the possibility of spillovers in companion with natural destruction,
- as unexplored areas with new species of primates are exploited,
- other manmade problems like side effects of genetical engineering,
- the option for use as biological weapons,
- climate change and global warming that help germs immigrate to new territories and
- possibly frozen ones come back to live,
- terrible public health and prevention politics,
- no further development of new and preventive vaccines and antibiotics because there is no money to make with this stuff, except if it is the flu,...
How: As an element of warfare or one lumberjack, being bitten by a monkey or getting in contact with body fluids spreading it in his hometown and from there to a larger city to the capital to….. Or a multiresistant superbug out of a secret biowarfare lab or an industrial farming facility, whatever the difference is, the farming might get much more subsidies. There are so many great film plots around this.
Where: The only positive thing. If one doesn´t live in a larger city, but a rural area, by simply shooting everyone nearing the village after the breakout, bad things can be prevented and outposts have a long tradition of hating anything foreign, so that should work well. Except when there is a longer state of emergency, break down of infrastructure and food supply, leather rockers cannibalizing around, virus apocalypse, yada yada yada.
The author is a biologist with specializations in bacteriology and immunology who switched to journalism and the chapters read like great storylines for hard biopunk Sci-Fi stories. The underrepresented biopunk genre deserves more authors who are biologists, geneticists, bioengineers,... So please, take a creative writing course and create the next big thing, because the Sci-Fi hall of fame is filled with just mostly astrophysicists, chemists, physicists and similar, mainly not bio-focused, authors.
All of the points the author mentioned a long time ago, the suggestions she made on how to be able to deal with the problems have been commendably solved by a wise and united world government and public-private partnerships with international institutions that... Just joking, we are doomed (when living in large cities)! Doooomed. (I love to say that.) Now, it´s really enough. Ok, once again: „Move along people, nothing to see here. The government is competent and capable to deal with the situation.“
One more: They build bio weapons by combining elements of something extremely deadly like smallpox or ebola with the flu and anything that can spread by air and is extremely contagious. Something like a droplet infection that spread genetically enhanced HIV, multiresistant tuberculosis, hepatitis C,… this way might be no effective immediate use bioweapon, but something for the long-term destruction of a country, especially if the own population is immune and vaccinated against it.
A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonosis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_h...
I read it inspired, or let´s say terrified, yes, that sounds much better, by the current coronavirus outbreak.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2...
CNN live updates
https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-new...
John Hopkins CSSE world map
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/ap...
Youtube statistics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgylp... (less)
flag105 likes · Like · see review
Aug 04, 2019Lori rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: favorites
She nailed it in 1994. Maybe won't be COVID-19 but one of them. Terrific, informative, well-written, I still remember it but not surprised it's a bestseller again.
I was seeing a guy getting his Ph.D. at Harvard School of Public Health and leaving him even more sleep-deprived than your average Sci.D. getting a Ph.D. in public health by hitting him on the arm to wake him up multiple times a night as questions occurred to me. Maybe if I'd written them down we'd still be together. (Kidding!)
(Focus, Lori. You don't like reviews or reviewers who make the books about them -- cough cough [not a coronavirus cough...or is it?] -- Lolita.
Can someone please muzzle the orange lummox and Igor and let Dr. Fauci of our NIH run this? Tough choice: one's daddy paid to get him into school, then paid the school to take his grades and lock them up! -- and the other has been a worldwide leader in efforts to study and contain infectious diseases, especially AIDS and Ebola. (less)
flag78 likes · Like · 7 comments · see review
Oct 01, 2011Gregory S. rated it really liked it
A couple weeks after I read this wonderful book (years ago) I was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and saw a woman that looked just like the jacket photo of Laurie Garrett. I stopped and asked "Are you Laurie Garrett?" And, of course, she was. Then I said something impossibly stupid--like "You are to disease what the Beatles are to music." That wasn't what I actually said, but it was something equally idiotic and I'm sure I embarrassed the poor woman.
I attended a reading she gave a few years later when she was releasing a book on the public health system, and afterwards I wanted to get her to sign my copy--but I was afraid she might remember me. And I was also afraid she wouldn't. So I just left when the lecture was over.
None of this speaks to this book at all, but there it is. (less)
flag50 likes · Like · 4 comments · see review
Sep 07, 2012Forrest rated it really liked it
Ebola's back. Want to know how it all started? Read this book. If you're not terrified by the time you're done, you're not paying attention or you have far too much faith in the strength of man versus microbes. I read this for a graduate-level history class on "Ecology, Disease, and Population". Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time studying how disease has shaped human history.
flag23 likes · Like · 5 comments · see review
Oct 09, 2008Chrissie rated it liked it
Shelves: medical, text-checked, kirkus
3 stars
This book is in-depth. The focus is on history, detailed facts and what we can do to prevent and cope with new maladies. Even if the book is no longer new, it still teaches a lot. We can learn from past mistakes. For me, parts read as a horror story. Then I calmed down.
It first came out in 1994, and hey, we are still here! Did I become immune to the horror?! Or did it finally put me to sleep? In places, it sort of felt like a text book. My education was not adequate for a complete understanding of some of the medical discussions. It is heavily footnoted and has an index too. It is no sensational, quick read. It is both scary and deadening. Yes, the pun was intended.
The book is directed toward serious readers who want the complete history of the new plagues that have confronted us in the last century, think the Bolivian hemorrhagic fever, the Marbug virus, Yellow fever, the Brazilian meningitis epidemic, Lassa fever, Ebola, swine flu, Legionnaires’ disease, sexually transmitted diseases and injecting drug users, AIDS, toxic shock syndrome and what can be done to stop this trend. Elimination of a disease threat is inextricably bound to economics, development and politics. The fight against disease is inextricably a fight against world poverty.
Here is the truth: to complete this book I forced myself to read one chapter a day.
*************************
After Chapter 5: Definitely interesting but hard to read. I am no hypochondriac; I tend to treat pains with nonchalance in fact, but when you read this book you start worrying. You certainly get scared of traveling to Africa, and you wash your hands a lot.
Have decided to read a chapter a day, which is about all I can handle, due only to my own fears. So far I have learned about Yellow fever, Ebola, Lassa fever, Marburg virus.....
(less)
flag22 likes · Like · 25 comments · see review
Oct 20, 2009Lobstergirl rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Recommends it for: Jim Inhofe
Shelves: own
We're screwed. The microbes are going to win. And make no mistake, climate change is going to accelerate our death spiral. (Though writing in the early 1990s, Garrett discusses the effects of global warming on pathogen populations and spread.)
One of the most fascinating things about this story is that we are drastically underestimating the number of deaths from microbes and pathogens. If we actually had public health departments that were funded and functioned properly, if we funded public health and epidemiological studies and prevention efforts at the national level to match the need, if we did proper autopsies on everyone and performed the requisite tests, we would find the mortality rates from these infectious diseases jumping enormously. The truth is that many deaths from pathogens go unnoticed and unreported because they are not tested for; they are attributed to causes like pneumonia. (An example is Legionnaires' disease, which we associate with an isolated event in Philadelphia in 1976. But the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease probably killed thousands more people in the years after air conditioning systems were invented, and these deaths were attributed to other causes.)
Garrett's book is a masterpiece of reporting and synthesis that, with the exception of chunks here and there, reads like a novel. Just one tiny example of her thoroughness is a footnote in which she lists every major influenza pandemic since the year 1173, along with the probable origin, geographical scope, and estimated mortality of each. This footnote has its own footnotes (four different sources). And the book has more than 100 pages of footnotes. Some of them have more depth of reporting than a news article in a major newspaper.
The book is all the more astonishing in that due to an occupational injury, Garrett was unable to use a keyboard and wrote the whole thing in longhand. (less)
flag16 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
Aug 31, 2007Stefanie rated it it was amazing
Shelves: non-fiction, favorites
although it's now somewhat out of date, this remains far and away the most comprehensive and interesting book about diseases i've read. what sets this apart from the rest of the disease books on my shelf is the sheer amount of ground covered and how well it's presented. it doesn't particularly seem like it would be a fast read, yet it is.
flag15 likes · Like · comment · see review
Aug 27, 2007Lisa Vegan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: reviewed, non-fiction, science, nature, readbooks-female-author-or-illust, z1994, zz-5star
This is my kind of horror book. I think it scared me more than just about any other book I’ve ever read, but I loved it. I appreciated the author’s skillful and entertaining story telling and admired her scientific accuracy.
I can’t vouch that the information is current; I read this when it was first published. At the time it was pertinent and I can’t imagine that the basic theory (regarding epidemics) isn’t still valid. I’d continue to recommend this to anyone who’s interested in medicine, disease, and human health.
I enjoyed this book so much that when Laurie Garrett was speaking in my city, I went to hear her; she’s very personable and knowledgeable.
(less)
flag14 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
Nov 02, 2017Kevin rated it really liked it
Shelves: health-public-social, history-health, 3c-reread
//2020 (COVID-19) Update:
--March 2020 pandemic global lock-down, here we go....
--The author has been appearing on American media to give her coverage of COVID-19, after her acclaimed coverage of 2002-03 SARS, Ebola, HIV, etc. Here's a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
--Warning: I do worry to what degree Garrett can critically analyze the American foreign policy factor given her proximity to it (Senior Fellow of the Global Health Program in the Council on Foreign Relations).
--This factor is crucial to getting a complete picture of American/Western foreign aide. It is perhaps murkier in global health (the further you move away from the direct political economy of poverty), where on the surface there seems to be greater conflicting pressures (from supposedly apolitical technocrats). Stay vigilante.
--On the other hand, I've noticed a few anti-imperialists (well-versed in analyzing the violence of foreign policy, which is why I follow them) who would benefit from reading a broader range of topics (i.e. statistics, sciences, technology, etc.). Acknowledgement of my own limitations in various subject matters leaves me baffled by the self-confident leaps of logic that some take, where they start with discrepancies/failures in politics (where, of course, powers will be opportunistic with crises) and conclude with (very) amateur analyses of science/statistics (i.e. "hoax", "just the flu"...or even worse: pseudo-scientific musings on what is "natural" vs. "man-made" about viruses/immune system responses... Facepalm fallacies covered in Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks).
--If you only have hammer, every problem looks like a nail; we all benefit from a more diverse toolkit.
//2018 Review of 1995 book:
--750 pages covering 50 years of global disease control adventures… stunning narration by Laurie Garrett.
--Global inequity: while the scientific and technological changes to healthcare are visible in wealthy countries, we have at the same time clinics in the Global South that reuse un-sterile injection needles so often that they need to sharpen them on stones, due to the lack of supplies and education.
--Even wealthy countries require public funding for population health services and long-term R&D, which human parasites like the Reagan administration are eager to dismantle and privatize (first pillaging social wealth, then slapping on extra fees to extract further profits while sacrificing the dispossessed).
While I focused on the social factors, there were plenty of discussion around the biology of disease. Highlights for newly emerging diseases include:
1) Environmental disruption: human’s rapid expansion into previously isolated natural habitats opens exposures to new pathogens. A deeper analysis of the political economy/ecology that drives this would really complete the picture (i.e. the global market, urbanization/slums, capitalism seeking new markets and relentlessly commodifying nature, etc.)
2) Global transportation drastically accelerating the spread of epidemics.
3) Lack of global surveillance infrastructure to deal with these new threats. (less)
flag11 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
=====================================
Jul 14, 2014Kaethe Douglas rated it it was amazing
Shelves: plagues, science, nonfiction, medicine
This is an amazing book. Garret gives an overview of all the nastiest diseases on the horizon: Ebola, Marburg...her central point, that expanding human territory is likely to increase contact with animal reservoirs, and that sooner or later, something is going to develop that is both deadly and swiftly spread.
Come to think of it, I'd love to read an updated edition.
flag12 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
Oct 13, 2014High Plains Library District rated it really liked it
Shelves: peter
Want the skinny on Ebola? I mean, the answer to that is probably not because, frankly, it's kind of terrifying.
Let me put that a different way.
Want to hear actual facts and research about Ebola instead of news bites?
The Coming Plague was easily the best thing I read in library school. Yes, library school. Just examine that name for a second and guess how much reading a library school student does. And then remember that I said this was the best part of all that reading. Then have a snack because I've been ordering you around a lot here and I feel bad about that, so please, enjoy.
Author Laurie Garrett also wrote this great post, "5 Myths About Ebola" that you should probably check out: http://www.newsday.com/opinion/five-m...
Okay, full disclosure, this is a long book. But it's not a long read. Sit down, read the first 20 pages, and by then you'll be hooked. And also maybe a little terrified. Happy Halloween, I guess.
-Peter (less)
flag8 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jun 13, 2011Angela rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: bookcrossed-or-otherwise-set-free, 2007, non-fiction
This book terrified me.
If you think globalization and urbanization in distant places have had no ill effect on the quality of life on this planet, think again. We discover new diseases faster than we learn to treat them, and our current methods of treatment tend only to make the diseases stronger and more virulent. The author makes a grand case for a major change of mindset in funding not only medical research and health organizations, but also supporting basic human rights to safe living environments, clean water, and sufficient nutrition.
Anyone who has any degree of literacy should read it, especially those in positions of influence. I encourage everyone to buy several copies and send one to each of your representatives: local, state, and federal.
This copy will go to some government official, as soon as I figure out where it might do the best good.
(BTW, this edition was published in 1994. I wonder if a revised and updated edition is available. Such a revision would more than likely be even more frightening.) (less)
flag7 likes · Like · comment · see review
Dec 01, 2014Nick Black rated it liked it
Recommended to Nick by: Emily Bragg
Shelves: borrowing-will-give-back, she-blinded-me-with-science
pretty good. certainly thorough. "epidemic" is tossed around pretty liberally -- if a fever burns out a south american village, does it make a sound? poor editing, with numerous phrases and sentences repeated verbatim and certain acronyms expanded not at all, on late use, or multiple times. i'd like to have seen more on the virology and suppression of HIV and fewer tedious pages of stats and prediction histories. worth reading, though.
flag7 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Jan 31, 2013Jen Williamson rated it really liked it
This is probably one of the most informative books I've ever read. Laurie Garrett's knowledge of public health issues, coupled with her keen ability to write in Lay Terms-- makes this somewhat dry (but necessary) information a whole lot more palatable. It's been 11 years since I originally read it, so time for another read.
flag7 likes · Like · comment · see review
Oct 12, 2014AC rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 20th-21st-century
I read this when it came out -- and thought it was brilliant. It seems not to have aged much, judging by recent reviews.
flag7 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review
Feb 29, 2020James rated it it was amazing
This is the second time I’ve read THE COMING PLAGUE, NEWLY EMERGING DISEASES IN A WORLD OUT OF BALANCE by Laurie Garrett. The first time I read it, in the late 1990s, it scared me. This time it scared me more.
I’m reminded of the line from Hamlet,
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy,”
which I usually use in reference to the unexplainable. In this case, it’s the unknown dangers that have lurked around humanity for centuries but choose to expose themselves only when humankind encroaches too far, too fast.
As I write this, the world is on the brink of a pandemic. Right now it could go the way of the swine flu or Ebola. Or it might be the centennial return of the Spanish flu. I hope not.
Reading this book, published in 1995, in 2020, one appreciates Ms. Garrett’s insight and restraint. Neither hysterical nor polemic, it is for the most part not dated. Much of what Garrett wrote has come to pass in some form or another.
It’s a thick book, 600+ pages, but there is very little that is superfluous. Ms. Garrett has also published several related articles over the years, many in Foreign Affairs, that are worth reading if you’re interested in the topic but unwilling to commit to the book. (less)
flag6 likes · Like · 3 comments · see review
Oct 04, 2013Cedar Sanderson rated it did not like it
Shelves: science
Poorly researched.
I really wanted to like this book, and indeed, right up until I casually fact-checked a shocking number for an article I was writing, I was enjoying the depth of information about epidemiology. I'm a microbiology student who has been fascinated with parasitology and infectious disease for a very long time, so this seemed like it was right up my alley. And then I tripped over her facts - or rather, falsehoods. She claims, in the chapter "Microbe Magnets" that there were 500,000 deaths from Cholera in NYC in 1832. Wow… that's a horrifying number. Except it isn't true. There were about 250,000 people living in NYC that summer, and 3215 of them succumbed to the disease. I was able to check it from multiple sources in mere moments, with the magic of the internet at my fingertips, and although I know she wouldn't have had that in 1994, it is still an egregious error. Sadly, I'm done reading this book, and will look for other, more trustworthy efforts in the field. (less)
flag5 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Oct 13, 2014Peter Derk rated it really liked it
This is the best book you can read about disease, and it was the best thing I read in library school. Seriously, all of library school. You can just imagine how many books you have to read for something called "library school."
Probably a more important read than ever, the Coming Plague talks quite a bit about Ebola, for one, and the different methods by which diseases can be fought, how difficult it is to eradicate a disease, and how often politics and science can't get on the same page.
Don't look at the number of pages. Just pick it up and start. I promise, you will not be bored. (less)
flag6 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Nov 05, 2014~☆~Autumn♥♥ rated it it was amazing
My husband got this one for me when he was TDY to Boston years ago. It is right up my alley in what I like to read. I would like to have been a microbiologist. If you are also interested in microbes you will enjoy this book.
flag5 likes · Like · 5 comments · see review
Feb 17, 2020Ericka Clouther rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: nonfiction, science, history, health, medicine, biology, 1990s, author-female, pandemic, 0-borrowed
There is a lot of amazing information in this huge tome, and it took me three weeks to get through, but it was worth it. It could have used a firmer editing hand though. Both the chronology of infectious diseases and the diseases themselves were divided into chapters in ways I failed to understand. Additionally, given the large amount of extremely useful information provided by this book, it would have moved the book along to edit down every individual thought every patient and every doctor ever had, every description of every little leaf in the jungle the disease emerged. I could basically write an entire book review about any chapter, it's so overwhelming.
There was a lot of information about AIDS provided in the second half of the book.
Some of the themes of the book are sleuthing the origins of novel pathogen outbreaks, scientific hubris, and illness containment fails.
I recently watched an interview with Dr. Ian Crozier, an ebola survivor, and I was amazed at how much I understood that I'd only just learned from the information in this book.
I read this for some insight into the novel virus outbreaks like our cures coronavirus outbreak but I definitely gained a great deal more from reading this. And what a great ending! (less)
flag6 likes · Like · comment · see review
Oct 09, 2014Mary Soderstrom rated it really liked it
Laurie Garrett's book The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance is nearly 20 years old but it offers very interesting background information about the first round of Ebola in Africa, plus important discussion of how diseases develop and spread. Garrett is now senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Pulitzer Prize winning science writer, as well as being an engaging writer.
I had read this book several years ago when doing research on some medical matter at a time when AIDS was still little understood by the public. The chapters on Ebola and Marburg diseases were fascinating. While much has changed since, the account gives some idea of how diseases emerged out of nowhere and then receded after less than a year.
What is puzzling is that the diseases seemed to burn themselves out. This does not seem to be happening here, possibly because the outbreaks began in more densely populated, better connected parts of Africa than during the 25 previous episodes of the disease. (For an interesting comment see: Ebola: The Tolling Bell.) When people incubating the virus can travel, the risk of them contaminating others is great. In earlier epidemics, Ebola appears to have been confined to relatively isolated villages and once everyone in contracted the disease and either died or survived and became immune, the outbreak was over.
This time around, Garrett has some concrete ideas of how to stop the disease now that it's escaped African villages. In her trenchant piece Foreign Policy published Oct. 6, 2014, dhe writes: "First, a rapid point-of-care diagnostic that can find Ebola virus in a single droplet of blood must be developed. A point-of-care test avoids the need to ship samples to a laboratory and then wait for days to learn the results....I suggest the use of self-administered implements commonly used by diabetics to make a finger prick and squeeze out a droplet of blood. That droplet would go into a tiny plastic well -- an object about an inch in size that is internally coated with either DNA or antibodies that recognize specific genes or proteins found exclusively in the Ebola virus. If those viral markers are present, the device would glow with bioluminescence or change color -- the result would be observable with the naked eye...
"Finger-prick tests for Ebola are in development now at Senova, a company in Weimar, Germany; at a small Colorado company called Corgenix; and at California-based Theranos...One of these screening tests should soon meet the criteria of speed, accuracy, and ease of use necessary to prevent travelers' spread of Ebola; facilitate contact tracing; and, in the midst of the epidemic, tell who has the virus and who does not."
(less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Aug 23, 2012James rated it really liked it
I'll first say: this book is LONG. Having it on my Kindle meant that I did not really understand how long this book would be. It is definitely a commitment.
Overall, it is terrifying. I would become a germophobe and start covering myself in anti-microbial hand sanitizers, but the germs will just evolve around it, become resistance, and kill me anyway. The best portions on this book are following the disease detectives from the CDC and other organizations as they investigated real-world outbreaks in the field. In this respect, the book was similar to Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, and to a lesser extent The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story, and The Demon in the Freezer. However, I would say this book was more sophisticated and written a higher level (not for mass market readership) than those three. This is not a bad thing, as it was still very readable and not overly technical.
Where the book did drag was some sections on disease outbreaks, especially where it go too much in to statistics. Several pages seemed to blur together as it seemed to just be statistic after statistic on multiple drug resistant tuberculosis. Absent the drama of following disease hunters in the field as they searched for the source of Machupo, Lassa, Ebola, Hanta, and other deadly disease outbreaks, this book seemed to drag significantly, making the 700+ page length seem unbearable.
This book probably could have improved in this area, and one other, which would have been an updated edition that included more contemporary outbreaks, including the 2001 anthrax attacks, SARS, bird flu, and salmonella. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Feb 16, 2008Carrie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Wow. This woman is amazing. I would never have thought that I'd spend entire days reading an 800-page book about diseases...but I did, because Laurie Garrett is one of those rare scientists who can write captivating sentences. This book chronicles both the emergence of, and response to, historically important deadly diseases and the role of the CDC, other government agencies, and nasty scientist political maneuvering in the attempts to contain said diseases.
I also like this book because it's evidence in favor of my belief that humans will never really "win" in our struggle to triumph over nature. Basically, we're too stupid and mostly only capable of extremely short-term thought, and can't change fast enough to keep up with the environmental changes that our stupid, short-term decisions cause. Microbes, on the other hand, evolve rapidly and can (and do) change as needed to ensure their survival.
Personally, I find that comforting...but if it freaks you out, this is probably not the book for you. (less)
flag4 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Aug 10, 2011Tim added it
A terrifying and humbling look at the manner in which human behavior is serving to intensify, spread and otherwise benefit viral and bacterial agents. Everything from anti-immunization efforts, prostitution, non-sterile hospital equipment, re-use of syringes, global warming, refugees, global animal trade, increased UV radiation, pollution... all make the world more hospitable to microbes, and less hospitable to humans. In an age when the most wealthy nation in the world can't agree to give health care to it's own citizens, those living in the developing world are left on their own. And with global travel, disease can and does spread rapidly. The whole species is at risk, and precious little is being done about it.
9/12/09 (less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Aug 12, 2013Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies rated it really liked it
Shelves: to-review, all-time-favorites, nonfiction
Bwahahahaha. I'll write a review for this one of these days. Read this in high school and it's remained on my shelves since. Recommended for people who think drowning in your own blood is strangely intriguing.
Don't read this if you're prone to hypochondria. Or have a tendency to google your symptoms.
Hemorrhagic fevers are awesome.
flag6 likes · Like · comment · see review
Apr 06, 2009Valerie rated it it was amazing
Shelves: autographed, hell-in-a-handbasket, science, cypresslibrary
Written by a UCSC graduate, this book covers all of the many ways our actions contribute to the spread of disease vectors. Fascinating, scary and informative.
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Feb 02, 2014Robin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: non-fiction
Almost 20 years later, the FDA still refuses to restrict antibiotics and livestock feed.
flag4 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review
Jun 19, 2013Mac rated it it was ok
This book had many quite interesting moments, particularly the sections on Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), HIV's beginnings in America, and the politics around global pandemics. The discussion of what exactly malaria was was also fascinating - it is a unique and confounding affliction.
That said, the narrative was schizophrenic: is it a travel narrative of an international cohort of doctors that solve epidemics, or a piece of public policy writing? A lack of commitment to both leaves goals only superficially explored, and at 600+ pages, its length provides another compelling reason to go with one or the other. The travel narratives and personal histories are also flat and boring, when usually these kind of touches add verve to scientific journalism.
Also, many topics are treated multiple times. I understand that I might need to be reminded of something that happened 500 pages ago, but many of the reminders are heavy-handed. Her point does come to a compelling conclusion at the end - we need better infrastructure to prevent disease, particularly after the gutting of the social safety net in the 80s and 90s - but it could have been said in far few pages, with half as many case studies.
The argument maybe suffered in my eyes because of how little convincing I needed that we less solve problems than change old ones to new ones - antibiotics just creating new germs, antimalarials creating different types of disease, new plagues shamed the same old way - and so someone else might need this much convincing. It did reinforce my conviction that by former standards of development, America has greatly regressed, with TB infesting our major cities, measles striking our schoolchildren, AIDS endemic to the south.
I learned a lot and many of the epigraphs added books to my reading list, but I would not advise suffering through it. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jul 03, 2008Corbin Dodge rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: non-fiction, academic, medical
Both fascinating and frightening, The Coming Plague explores the dark side of human life and death. From the deep Congo where the Ebola virus lurks, to the streets of New York and San Francisco where the AIDS virus made its American debut, this book is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.
I highly praise Garrett for her medical storytelling abilities. She has a way of capturing her readers’ attention and keeping it--something rarely done in medically-descriptive writing. This book can be appreciated from both a physician's and a layman's perspective since she is able to breakdown research initiatives for each disease into a language that is understandable.
Each chapter seems to follow the same format:
1) Introduce the first-cases of the disease, location, environment, symptoms, acute illness, and deaths of first-cases
2) Spread of disease, numbers, location, theories on the outbreak and causes
3) History of related diseases and current threats
4) Initial lab initiatives, successes, failures, funding & funding politics
5) Resolution of funding issues, development of research initiatives, initial discoveries, questions from researchers, answers to questions one-by-one
6) Developments of treatment (if any), patient testing of treatment (if any)
7) Discussion of possible future outbreaks which leads to a ...? In the chapters final paragraph that leads into the next chapter/disease
In this way, every disease seems to be explored chronologically, but at the same time she is able to layer the book so that every chapter feeds into the next.
This is a fascinating book and I recommend anyone with medical interests in epidemiological phenomena’s pick it up from their local bookstore. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jul 13, 2009Jennifer Beadle rated it it was amazing
I read this book when it first came out and I was working in a biological chemical factory. This really hit home to me. We were in a way already dealing with some of the issues mentioned in the book. My job title at the time (my tongue-in-cheek title) was mad cow queen. I did research to verify the animal products we used and manufactured were bse-free.
You have to wonder what people who don't want universal health care are thinking. With so many people out of work and losing their health insurance, do we really want them getting sick and passing the pandemic on to the rest of us. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review
