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Summary
Summary
National Book Award finalist Breathless tells the story of the worldwide scientific race to decipher the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, trace its source, and make possible the vaccines to fight the Covid-19 pandemic-- a "l uminous, passionate account of the defining crisis of our time." ( The New York Times ).
Breathless is a "gripping" ( The Atlantic ) but "clear-eyed analysis" ( Time ) of SARs-CoV-2 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists who study its origin, its ever-changing nature, and its capacity to kill us. David Quammen expertly shows how strange new viruses emerge from animals into humans as we disrupt wild ecosystems and how those viruses adapt to their human hosts, sometimes causing global catastrophe. He explains why this coronavirus will probably be a "forever virus," destined to circulate among humans and bedevil us endlessly, in one variant form or another. As scientists labor to catch it, comprehend it, and control it, with their high-tech tools and methods, the virus finds ways of escape.
Based on interviews with nearly one hundred scientists, including leading virologists in China and around the world, Quammen explains that:
-Infectious disease experts saw this pandemic coming
-Some scientists, for more than two decades, warned that "the next big one" would be caused by a changeable new virus--very possibly a coronavirus--but such warnings were ignored for political or economic reasons
-The precise origins of this virus may not be known for years, but some clues are compelling, and some suppositions can be dismissed
-And much more
Written by "one of our finest explainers of the natural world for decades" ( Chicago Tribune ), This "compelling and terrifying" ( The New York Times ) account is an unparalleled look inside the frantic international race to understand and control SARS-CoV-2--and what it might mean for the next potential global health crisis.
Author Notes
Writer David Quammen grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and was later educated at both Yale and Oxford Universities.
Quammen began his career by writing for The Christian Science Monitor, the National Center for Appropriate Technology, and Audubon, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Harpers Magazines. He wrote the novels The Soul of Viktor Tronko and The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions, which won the 1997 New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. He also received two National Magazine Awards for his column "Natural Acts" in Outside magazine.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Science journalist Quammen (Spillover) recounts in page-turning detail the scientific response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many scientists, the author writes, have seen a covid-like pandemic coming for years, thanks in part to the 2003 SARS outbreak that ended up being something of "a rehearsal," though one that made "the significance of super-spreaders... painfully clear." But SARS-CoV-2, aka the virus that causes Covid-19, is different in its makeup, and parts of its genome made "the virus more capable of infecting humans." As well, Quammen breaks down how viruses jump from animals to humans, explains that "this virus is going to be with us forever" as it continues to adapt, and makes a convincing case that "we should stop thinking about the 'origin' of SARS-CoV-2, and proceed by thinking about its origins, plural." Terms, such as RNA, "variant," and "herd immunity" are accessibly explained, and the narrative is punctuated with vivid portraits of such scientists as Anthony Fauci; Zhengli Shi, a senior scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology; and molecular virologist Michael Worobey, who tracked the virus's evolution. This is a must-read for anyone looking to get a better handle on the pandemic so far. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners. (Oct.)
Kirkus Review
An authoritative new history of Covid-19 and its predecessors. Prolific, award-winning science writer Quammen bring his story up to 2022, as the pandemic enters its third year with no end in sight. Authors who begin with 2019 events in the Wuhan meat market are fated to end with an anticlimax, but Quammen, casting his net more widely, does not have this problem. In addition to a hair-raising account of the ongoing pandemic, the author delivers an insightful education on public health and an introduction to numerous deadly epidemics over the past 50 years. He also educates readers about the centurylong history of the coronavirus, which produced two nasty epidemics before the current one. Once known as a mundane cause of the common cold, the first "killer coronavirus" emerged from a Chinese food market in 2003, killing about 800 of 8,000 victims across the world before disappearing. SARS-CoV didn't spread until symptoms developed, so it was not difficult to identify cases, trace contacts, and set effective quarantine guidelines. This was also true of the MERS-CoV epidemic that began in 2012 and killed 76 of 178 people, mostly on the Arabian Peninsula. The current pandemic remains horrendously difficult to control because asymptomatic individuals can still spread the virus. Having delivered this bad news, Quammen chronicles his tours around the world (often via Zoom due to lockdowns), grilling a Greek chorus of nearly 100 scientists and health officials whose extensive biographies fill a 43-page appendix. Skirting the mostly dismal politics displayed by national leaders, the author constructs a masterful account of viral evolution culminating in Covid-19, which has displayed the dazzling ability to circumvent our natural and then technology-enhanced immune system. Perhaps the best news is that killing a host is irrelevant; viruses give priority to multiplying and spreading, so it's possible that Covid-19 will adapt to our adaptations and grow less virulent. One of the latest variants, Omicron, is a dramatic example. Unsettling global health news brilliantly delivered by an expert. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Describing COVID-19 as "a horrific sorrow to humanity," accomplished science writer Quammen (The Tangled Tree, 2018; Spillover, 2012) fashions a sort of biography of the virus and a masterful scientific detective story. He comprehends the biology and story of COVID-19 by looking "over the shoulders of scientists" and interviewing almost 100 around the globe. His discussion features zoonotic spillover (the transfer of a virus from an animal host to humans), RNA viruses (and their penchant for frequent mutations and rapid adaptation), herd immunity, and vaccine development. Quammen strives to elucidate the origin of COVID-19, a "natural spillover from a wild animal" (most likely), laboratory leak, or bioengineered virus (least probable). His writing can be chilling and ominous. Viruses "are the dark angels of evolution, terrific and terrible." The astonishing science depicted here, from bioinformatics to epidemiology and molecular biology, is formidable and sometimes head-spinning. Its passionate practitioners (who create clarity and order out of mystery and mayhem) truly are lab coat-wearing and biohazard-suited heroes. Quammen delivers a demanding and essential book about COVID-19, glumly asserting that the virus "is going to be with us forever." While this is not the happy ending we were hoping for, it's best to face facts.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Highly respected Quammen's tale of the origins and ongoing reality of COVID-19 will be on many must-read lists.
Choice Review
Reporting about good research can be banal, but in the case of research about the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, it is nonetheless important that we understand it. Quammen, among whose popular science titles are Ebola (CH, Apr'15, 52-4247), Spillover (CH, May'13, 50-5030), and The Reluctant Mr. Darwin (CH, Jun'07, 44-5638), delivers this important information through a "he did/she did" narrative to give a full picture of what this virus is and means to readers. Even a non-virologist (this reader is an animal behaviorist) can gain a clear picture of what's behind the menace of the pandemic. Quammen explains not only this one but also past viruses, how they are structured and can invade human cells, and actions of drugs against them. The text details the search for evidence in uncomfortable places (bat caves) and the long slog in the laboratory that allows virologists to characterize and trace how viruses attack humans. Quammen also provides glimpses of the scientific "bush telegraph," the pressure to publish, and the high reputation of some researchers and not others, while delving little into the important public communication of research results. Readers are then left with the irony of the subtitle, as it's clear that viruses, even this one, will never be "defeated." Summing Up: Optional. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. General readers. --Jennifer A. Mather, University of Lethbridge
Library Journal Review
Given how viruses have been leaping from animals to humans with ongoing ecosystem disruption, infectious disease experts have been predicting the current pandemic for two decades But their warnings were brushed aside for political or economic reasons, explains go-to science writer Quammen (Spillover), who drew on interviews with nearly 100 scientists worldwide for this chronicle.
Table of Contents
| I Citizens Need Not Panic | p. 1 |
| II The Warnings | p. 25 |
| III Message in a Bottle | p. 71 |
| IV Market Dynamics | p. 121 |
| V Variables and Constants | p. 155 |
| VI Four Kinds of Magic | p. 189 |
| VII The Leopards of Mumbai | p. 231 |
| VIII Nobody Knows Everything | p. 291 |
| Credits | p. 315 |
| Notes | p. 359 |
| Bibliography | p. 369 |
| Index | p. 395 |
