In 2020, the novel coronavirus gripped the world in a global pandemic and led to the death of hundreds of thousands. The source of the previously unknown virus? Bats. This phenomenon—in which a new pathogen comes to humans from wildlife—is known as spillover, and it may not be long before it happens again.
Prior to the emergence of our latest health crisis, renowned science writer David Quammen was traveling the globe to better understand spillover’s devastating potential. For five years he followed scientists to a rooftop in Bangladesh, a forest in the Congo, a Chinese rat farm, and a suburban woodland in New York, and through high-biosecurity laboratories. He interviewed survivors and gathered stories of the dead. He found surprises in the latest research, alarm among public health officials, and deep concern in the eyes of researchers.
Spillover delivers the science, the history, the mystery, and the human anguish of …
In 2020, the novel coronavirus gripped the world in a global pandemic and led to the death of hundreds of thousands. The source of the previously unknown virus? Bats. This phenomenon—in which a new pathogen comes to humans from wildlife—is known as spillover, and it may not be long before it happens again.
Prior to the emergence of our latest health crisis, renowned science writer David Quammen was traveling the globe to better understand spillover’s devastating potential. For five years he followed scientists to a rooftop in Bangladesh, a forest in the Congo, a Chinese rat farm, and a suburban woodland in New York, and through high-biosecurity laboratories. He interviewed survivors and gathered stories of the dead. He found surprises in the latest research, alarm among public health officials, and deep concern in the eyes of researchers.
Spillover delivers the science, the history, the mystery, and the human anguish of disease outbreaks as gripping drama. And it asks questions more urgent now than ever before: From what innocent creature, in what remote landscape, will the Next Big One emerge? Are pandemics independent misfortunes, or linked? Are they merely happening to us, or are we somehow causing them? What can be done? Quammen traces the origins of Ebola, Marburg, SARS, avian influenza, Lyme disease, and other bizarre cases of spillover, including the grim, unexpected story of how AIDS began from a single Cameroonian chimpanzee. The result is more than a clarion work of reportage. It’s also the elegantly told tale of a quest, through time and landscape, for a new understanding of how our world works—and how we can survive within it.
-- wwnorton.co.uk/books/9780393346619-spillover
Quammen is a writer who produced several books on scientific topics, lately focusing on pathogens. In this book, he analyses several occurrences of spillover (the ecological process whereby a pathogen jumps from a host species to a new one) via interviews with protagonists and accounts from the field. I guess it became so popular during the latest pandemic (COVID-19) exactly because he talks a lot about how the world we are building, with all the issues due to climate change, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable market demands are creating situations where spillovers can become more likely. It's very well written and researched.
2020, here we go. If it's not relevant now, I dont know what is.
Original review: I really liked the writing style and the topic. However I got distracted a lot while reading it, and I'm not really sure, why. I really like the calm, educated explanation of spillovers and the implications for future Big Ones. All the taunting to explain AIDS was a bit weird, though. I felt like every other chapter had some sort of "Just like HIV, but I'll explain it later, just you wait" bit.
A very nice, and long, discussion of the zoonoses. The actual information here could be put in one chapter, but the author entertains us with accounts of his field trips, history, biographies of those he met, and assorted diversions. I disliked his occasional use of common terms for bodily fluids and excreta. Sometimes these are clearly meant to be funny, i.e. when feces are called that except in the last line of a paragraph, and overall I suppose they are meant to make the story more acceptable to a broader audience, but they are unnecessary and sometimes inaccurate; do ticks drool?. He also defines the word morbidity as the frequency of illness, which must be an epidemiological definition. That is fine, but the readers who enjoy the mention of piss, etc., might be misled since morbidity is a commonly used word with another definition. The attempt to describe the mathematics …
A very nice, and long, discussion of the zoonoses. The actual information here could be put in one chapter, but the author entertains us with accounts of his field trips, history, biographies of those he met, and assorted diversions. I disliked his occasional use of common terms for bodily fluids and excreta. Sometimes these are clearly meant to be funny, i.e. when feces are called that except in the last line of a paragraph, and overall I suppose they are meant to make the story more acceptable to a broader audience, but they are unnecessary and sometimes inaccurate; do ticks drool?. He also defines the word morbidity as the frequency of illness, which must be an epidemiological definition. That is fine, but the readers who enjoy the mention of piss, etc., might be misled since morbidity is a commonly used word with another definition. The attempt to describe the mathematics of infectious disease transmission is laudable, and he gives quite good summaries of viral taxonomy and interesting conversations with experts about the infectious disease significance of the RNA viruses.
It is quite rare to read a book about infection diseases and actually think that it could make a great detective story.
David Quammen has written this fascinated book about zoonoses, the animal infections transmissible to humans, and has made epidemiology look like a super-exciting field. I almost regretted for not taking biology more seriously during my University years.
His vivid style and his ability to explain complex subjects clearly makes the book gripping and lively and the material accessible to everyone. Quammen examines the most important viruses HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Ebola, Hendra, Nippah (never heard of Hendra and Nippah before), SARS and Marburg, including the story of their outbreaks, the importance of their reservoir hosts and the environmental factors that altered the host’s ecology and facilitated the movement of viruses beyond their natural ecological niches. The chapter on HIV/AIDS is quite fascinated, it reads like a detective story.
Another interesting …
It is quite rare to read a book about infection diseases and actually think that it could make a great detective story.
David Quammen has written this fascinated book about zoonoses, the animal infections transmissible to humans, and has made epidemiology look like a super-exciting field. I almost regretted for not taking biology more seriously during my University years.
His vivid style and his ability to explain complex subjects clearly makes the book gripping and lively and the material accessible to everyone. Quammen examines the most important viruses HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Ebola, Hendra, Nippah (never heard of Hendra and Nippah before), SARS and Marburg, including the story of their outbreaks, the importance of their reservoir hosts and the environmental factors that altered the host’s ecology and facilitated the movement of viruses beyond their natural ecological niches. The chapter on HIV/AIDS is quite fascinated, it reads like a detective story.
Another interesting part of the book is the description of the places that Quammen visited while researching for the book. It makes the story more dynamic and animated, especially if you – like me – love to travel and learn about different cultures. It is also explains why isolating countries won’t keep viruses away. Travel advices or restrictions will not stop people to be curious and adventurous or simply to want to trade with each other.
Review of 'Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I wanted to see what my sisters future job is so I read this to learn more about epidemiology and found it fascinating. I kinda wanna be a scientist now, but learned a lot about viruses, how they spread and know what the word zoonosis means now too.
