Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
by David Quammen
2012
This books wasn't bad. A decent review of some of the history and the categories of 'zoonotic' transmissions (transmission between species, which seems to be a serious problem, based on the text).
I heard the audiobook, at around 20 hours. Naturally, there were a few stretches of esoteric nomenclature which was difficult to follow (not unlike this sentence), which especially made me zone-out during the several chapters on lyme disease, but this was a decent introduction for me to the nature of some past, and certainly our current, situation.
Overall pretty solid and a worthwhile go if you want a decent source to get your head around how the science is proceeding and a bit on the barriers that appear politically.
https://www.amazon.com/Spillover-An...t_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1585259360
======================
Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs
by Michael T. Osterholm & Mark Olshaker
2017
I should note that Michael Osterholm was recently on Joe Rogan's podcast; not a pod I hear often save for a very few guests but with the mayhem burgeoning I was looking for something along these lines and it delivered quite well; I think I got about as much value from the podcast as I did from the book, though I should mention that I read it after hearing the Quamman book, mentioned above, and I was likely overdosing on the subject.
The Rogan pod is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3URhJx0NSw
As for the book, I found it to be a little too much in the policy-mongering area, in the sense that 'failures' of the past and projected problems for the future--based on current/past politics--was a little too overarching. Politics, in general, bores the hell out of me lately but I can understand the motivation. The writers needed to resort to some worst-case scenario chapters to make their point of unpreparedness, while I was looking for more something along the lines of the evolutionary history of such microbes and how they interact with our own biological systems. As usual, it seems that the medical science has left me wanting for better understanding.
There was a bit, in both books, regarding this historical evolution of such adversaries but it was pretty clear that speculation abounds regarding what the hell is really going on in our biosphere.
https://www.amazon.com/Deadliest-En..._title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1585259953&sr=1-1
===========================
Just thought I'd throw some two cents on these books I'd consumed. Maybe not worth that, but my time is not money, these days. Never really was.
I'd also like to touch on Richard Preston, in case anyone else has attempted his works. Sounds like a bit of a scare-monger, to a degree, with his books 'The Hot Zone', 'Crisis in the Red Zone', 'The Demon in the Freezer, and 'Panic in Level 4'. He covers the nasty stuff (Ebola, bio-terrorism, etc) and, apparently, Stephen King digs his writing for its 'scariness.' Not sure about this author, although I am considering trying 'Micro', which was an unfinished novel by Michael Crichton which he apparently finished (I think he was a collaborator, as an expert on the subject, even before Crichton's demise).
Apparently, I have too much time on my hands.
Peace to those that suffer...from whatevas (and stop, already, dagnabbit!)
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yeY-Y4vdHk0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
To me, that's "ultra-brief". Fuck twitter.
by David Quammen
2012
This books wasn't bad. A decent review of some of the history and the categories of 'zoonotic' transmissions (transmission between species, which seems to be a serious problem, based on the text).
I heard the audiobook, at around 20 hours. Naturally, there were a few stretches of esoteric nomenclature which was difficult to follow (not unlike this sentence), which especially made me zone-out during the several chapters on lyme disease, but this was a decent introduction for me to the nature of some past, and certainly our current, situation.
Overall pretty solid and a worthwhile go if you want a decent source to get your head around how the science is proceeding and a bit on the barriers that appear politically.
https://www.amazon.com/Spillover-An...t_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1585259360
======================
Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs
by Michael T. Osterholm & Mark Olshaker
2017
I should note that Michael Osterholm was recently on Joe Rogan's podcast; not a pod I hear often save for a very few guests but with the mayhem burgeoning I was looking for something along these lines and it delivered quite well; I think I got about as much value from the podcast as I did from the book, though I should mention that I read it after hearing the Quamman book, mentioned above, and I was likely overdosing on the subject.
The Rogan pod is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3URhJx0NSw
As for the book, I found it to be a little too much in the policy-mongering area, in the sense that 'failures' of the past and projected problems for the future--based on current/past politics--was a little too overarching. Politics, in general, bores the hell out of me lately but I can understand the motivation. The writers needed to resort to some worst-case scenario chapters to make their point of unpreparedness, while I was looking for more something along the lines of the evolutionary history of such microbes and how they interact with our own biological systems. As usual, it seems that the medical science has left me wanting for better understanding.
There was a bit, in both books, regarding this historical evolution of such adversaries but it was pretty clear that speculation abounds regarding what the hell is really going on in our biosphere.
https://www.amazon.com/Deadliest-En..._title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1585259953&sr=1-1
===========================
Just thought I'd throw some two cents on these books I'd consumed. Maybe not worth that, but my time is not money, these days. Never really was.
I'd also like to touch on Richard Preston, in case anyone else has attempted his works. Sounds like a bit of a scare-monger, to a degree, with his books 'The Hot Zone', 'Crisis in the Red Zone', 'The Demon in the Freezer, and 'Panic in Level 4'. He covers the nasty stuff (Ebola, bio-terrorism, etc) and, apparently, Stephen King digs his writing for its 'scariness.' Not sure about this author, although I am considering trying 'Micro', which was an unfinished novel by Michael Crichton which he apparently finished (I think he was a collaborator, as an expert on the subject, even before Crichton's demise).
Apparently, I have too much time on my hands.
Peace to those that suffer...from whatevas (and stop, already, dagnabbit!)
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yeY-Y4vdHk0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
To me, that's "ultra-brief". Fuck twitter.
