Scan barcode
p9ng's review against another edition
5.0
About the science, not about the politics. Traces the history of discoveries around SARS- COV-2, and earlier work that laid a basis for pursuing the virus. Written in a literate style, with occasional humor and the backstory of many in the scientific community, as only a person who has been following the story of pandemics for more than 20 years can tell it.
siobhanward's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
4.0
NYT Notable Books 2022: 22/100
Even without much of a background on biology or virology, this book was well-written and accessible. I appreciate that Quammen pulled no punches with this book. It felt like his real and honest take on what happened and specifically how the Covid-19 pandemic was mishandled by the United States. I do appreciate that so much is still unknown about the pandemic's origins (both at the time of writing and now), but Quammen provided as much information as possible.
This was a really in-depth look at the pandemic and scientific responses (at least from the POV of someone with limited scientific knowledge) and covered a lot without being overwhelming. I didn't know much about what defined variants of concern (VOCs), or the differences between strains and this offered a ton of insight.
Even without much of a background on biology or virology, this book was well-written and accessible. I appreciate that Quammen pulled no punches with this book. It felt like his real and honest take on what happened and specifically how the Covid-19 pandemic was mishandled by the United States. I do appreciate that so much is still unknown about the pandemic's origins (both at the time of writing and now), but Quammen provided as much information as possible.
This was a really in-depth look at the pandemic and scientific responses (at least from the POV of someone with limited scientific knowledge) and covered a lot without being overwhelming. I didn't know much about what defined variants of concern (VOCs), or the differences between strains and this offered a ton of insight.
paulap's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.25
This was very well researched and very thorough. It was maybe a bit too thorough for me. Some of the issue it is also that the memory of COVID19 is still a bit too close in time for comfort. But regardless, even if I found following all the experiments and variants challenging, the general idea and message of the book was interesting and it cleared some points of what happened and what was said during the pandemic.
michalow's review against another edition
4.0
This book is densely packed with information, which is made accessible through Quammen's clear, conversational style. You don't need any previous knowledge of virology or genetics to follow along, but you will need an interest in these things to keep you going. Even though some of the information was familiar to me, I am grateful to Quammen for pulling a cohesive narrative out of what he calls the "firehose of preprints and published studies, of data analysis and speculation, of honest mistakes and hasty claims and retractions..." of the last few years.