Breathless

Quammen interviewed many researchers involved in the Covid-19 pandemic during and just after the lockdown using Zoom. He has digested and presented this information for us in his usual straightforward and evenhanded way. The nature of RNA viruses, the known history of the progression of the pandemic, and various opinions on the origin of the virus are discussed. DQ occasionally goes off on a tangent, e.g. the details of Pangolin smuggling, but I found it all interesting. My edition from last year has an addendum that brings things up to date, although there hasn't been a lot of new data on the origin of the virus - the author explains why.

There is a summary of the whole book at the end of the text that was largely made by abstracting what you've just finished reading. I found it unnecessary unless you aren't going to read the book.

Chapter 37, page 145: In addition, the CDC kept advising that, when local health departments could test they should focus only on people with a travel history, or people with severe symptoms... The author should explain why the CDC made this recommendation.

Chapter 69, page 279. a potluck banquet involving roughly forty thousand families [!]

Detailed and fact-filled account of the first years of the Pandemic, full of input from scientists. Even if you read all the articles in the last years, you'll find countless new informations and much better explanations. The best summary until now.

Not only is Quammen a spectacular science expositor to begin with, he already had years of experience writing about viral zoonoses prior to COVID. It makes sense that he should have written such a book, and it's great.