Status
Collection
Publication
Description
Sociology. Nonfiction. HTML: Veteran journalist Gina Kolata's Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It presents a fascinating look at true story of the world's deadliest disease. In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic felled the young and healthy virtually overnight. An estimated forty million people died as the epidemic raged. Children were left orphaned and families were devastated. As many American soldiers were killed by the 1918 flu as were killed in battle during World War I. And no area of the globe was safe. Eskimos living in remote outposts in the frozen tundra were sickened and killed by the flu in such numbers that entire villages were wiped out. Scientists have recently rediscovered shards of the flu virus frozen in Alaska and preserved in scraps of tissue in a government warehouse. Gina Kolata, an acclaimed reporter for The New York Times, unravels the mystery of this lethal virus with the high drama of a great adventure story. Delving into the history of the flu and previous epidemics, detailing the science and the latest understanding of this mortal disease, Kolata addresses the prospects for a great epidemic recurring, and, most important, what can be done to prevent it..… (more)
User reviews
Writing entertainingly about science is not, I assume, a walk in the park and Kolata (a Science journalist) does a good job of balancing the need to create an engaging, understandable narrative for non scientists with the need not to treat readers like simpletons (which happens all too often these days). There’s clearly a load of research in the book and while her conclusions are not always in line with other reading I’ve done on the subject of the pandemic itself they’re solidly backed up. And what is science if not the posing of theories and questioning of them? I’d have liked to see more reliance on primary sources and archival material rather than the delayed first-hand accounts and newspaper reports Kolata uses but all in all it’s a good read with more excitement and drama than some fiction I’ve read.
An interesting history of the flu and other epidemics. It almost reads like a mystery but actually is a historical look at the flu. This is especially interesting to read because I have the flu right now, and the news this week is flooded with
10-2003
Kolata's research and documentation are excellent and her writing style is easy reading, if you don't mind the bloody subject--which it was. She also reviewed other strains of influenza and the attempts to define source and type.
Desperate, and with no animal model
You might think a book about such terrible epidemics, and the pursuit of defenses against them, would have no amusing moments. Not so. As an example, in 1940, Johan Hultin, while on leave from the University of Uppsala in Sweden where he studied medicine, came to the U.S. to work at the University of Iowa. First he visited New York and when a friend there showed him a sign that said ‘coin laundry,’ recalled “I never asked what it was—I knew it. Americans are so worried about germs that they have their coins cleaned.”
If only there were such places. Think of all those bright, shining pennies.
Gina Kolata has written an informative account covering disease origin, manifestation, spread, treatment, mortality, and prevention. One might expect the approaches we use to address these issues would tap primarily our rationality and intelligence. But as she relates, they are matters that have become much politicized. With what consequences remains to be seen.
From descriptions of the rapidity of the fatal attacks, the overcrowded hospitals and mass graves to the latest efforts to explain the way the epidemic spread and where it originated, Kolata has written a book that was a page turner for me. As for the seriousness of this particular influenza some estimates of the worldwide casualties go as high as 100 million deaths with many who "recovered" never being in good heath afterwards. It also tended to target the young and healthy and more than one general blamed the illness for their failures to reach their objectives in WWI.
Recommended for those interested in medical histories and research.
Not quite what I was expecting. Although the book does contain some interesting information about the search for the virus that caused the 1918 flu epidemic, it falls rather short on answering any burning questions about it. The book contains a lot of ancillary
It might be a bit tedious if you don't like the meticulous series of success and failures that accompany scientific research or if you have minimal interest is hemaglutinins, genetic codes etc.
The great adventure
I loved the reconstruction of the era and the contrast with pandemics that
followed.
This is a book you could read in depth or read with a lighter look
4*