Pandemic

The pathogen that can spill over, spread, and cause disease is a dangerous creature to be sure, but it’s actually only halfway on the multistage journey toward pandemicity. The fate of the second other half of its journey is determined by how societies respond.

-Sonia Shah, Pandemic.

Although the human race has been affected by various epidemics throughout history; the novel virus #covid19 has become a semblance of pandemic in 2020. In Fact each time a pathogen infected and killed its host, it was novel to its era.

But what have we learnt from the previous epidemics? Was covid19 pandemic avoidable? Did the epidemiologist and scientists know about a new pathogen on the horizon???

Notable investigative science journalist Sonia Shah answers all of them in her book ‘Pandemic’ talking about various pandemics, epidemics and endemic diseases that have touched and devastated humans and livestock. The book is divided into 10 chapters talking briefly about the various stages and pathways a microbe has to scale to become a mass murderer, the conditions and the environment that force a microbe living a normal life faraway in nature to enter a human body, the contribution of industrialization and globalization in the spread of a pathogen, the role of society and government in harbouring and silencing the outbreak of a disease and finally tracking the next fatal contagion.

Through cholera pandemic and the vast research and lessons available Shah tries to explain the nature of pathogens and pandemic. Other epidemic and pathogen like SARS, H1N1, MRSA, MERS, NDM-1,H5N1, H3N2V, HIV, H7N9, monkeypox, Ebola, Lyme disease, West Nile Virus are also discussed from their source to their spread.

What I loved about the book is the massive research and journalistic material laid down by the author in the most simplistic language making this book the most interesting pop-science book on this topic. Being a health professional myself who doesn’t often read pop-sci coz we are more dependent on scientific papers and articles; I found it a riveting read and would recommend it to my colleagues. The book is highly recommended by me for all those who love reading this genre and people looking out for research material on this topic.

Thank you Sonia Shah, Harpercollins India and @thereaderstribe for the book. One of my best non-fiction reads of this year.

Here I would like to point that this book was written in 2016 by the author and it’s republished now with a new preface in 2020 when the covid19 pandemic is at its peak. No the book isn’t about coronavirus prediction, No unwanted sensationalism here. It’s a brutally honest well-penned book which makes me wanna read more books by the author.

Lastly Those who are going through or are anxious about “Pandemic Fear”, avoid such books.