Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Informative read and a couple of adventure stories too, January 17, 2003
This review is from: Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It (Paperback)
First off, this book is some things and is not some things. It is very informative and was well researched, there are lots of footnotes at the end. Much of the chapters read as separate articles that could stand independently. What it is not is a novel like read similar to the story that appears in Hot Zone. I thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning about the 1918 flu and about the modern researchers trying to find clues to what made that flu so deadly. If you are interested in knowing about that topic then I give this book a strong recommendation. If you are looking for a novel type page turner you'll probably be disappointed. There was one situation that made the whole work worth reading to me, maybe because I have a weird sense of humor. That was the telling of two separate research expeditions into the frozen north to dig up bodies of people that had died of the 1918 flu. One team was filled with experts, used x-ray to search, spent years planning, spent tons of money, had tons of media present. Didn't get results, the bodies were too decomposed. The other expedition was one guy with a pick. Well actually he got a few villagers to help him dig, but he spent only a few thousand of his own money and got results, real helpful results, in a couple of weeks. I also found the detailing of a flu scare that happened in Hong Kong with a jump from chickens to humans a very interesting story. How that scare and the research that went into studying it and comparing that to the 1918 ordeal was fascinating. There is a bit of information here about the politics of the Swine Flu panic in the 1970's and how the Ford administration dealt with it. Some of the same kinds of questions and issues are relevant today with all the threats of toxic warfare. If you find the topic of the 1918 flu interesting and how it relates to modern day problems and solutions this book is a strong recommendation.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Could the 1918 Influenza Epidemic happen again?, March 7, 2001
This review is from: Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It (Paperback)
In one year, 1918, The Great Flu Epidemic killed more people than any other single event in world history to date; an estimated 40 million people lost their lives. And they were primarily young and healthy. In the early 20th Century, people who survived the diseases of childhood were relatively robust. Yet they were the primary victims of this plague. So many young parents died in Boston that the Italian Home for Children was created to handle the orphans of Italian immigrant families who had settled there. Interestingly, the first signs of the epidemic were in Boston and nearby Fort Devens, where returning troops may have brought the disease. This was a world epidemic that spread even from Patagonia to the Arctic. We often read about the Black Plague of the Middle Ages, where almost a third of the populatiion in parts of Europe perished. But we hear very little on the Influenza Epidemic (only that it killed more people than WWI) and not much more. The most fascinating part of the book deals with an astonishing effort to try to resurrect the genes of the 1918 flu from preserved lung tissue of a flu victim that had been stored in a vast government warehouse. The scientists were attempting to piece together the relationship of the 1918 virus (this must be the finest example of a viral archeological sample) to the 1997 Hong Kong Flu. The HK 1997 flu shared some scary similarities to the 1918 flu symptoms--young, healthy people were dying, their lungs suddenly filling up with pneumonia-like fluids. This leads to the question if the 1918 epidemic could happen again? Gina Bari Kolata is an esteemed science reported for the New York Times and has been almost obsessed by the mystery of this epidemic. She is well qualified to write such a medical/scientific mystery.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting but shallow., January 2, 2000
I found this book to be disappointing. Given the rich material at the heart of the flu story (molecular biology, genetics, virology) I had hoped that this science would, albeit at a layman's level, be the center of the story. Instead the book is largely a collection of anecdotes about a subset of those who tried to reconstruct the virus. Such material could better have been dealt with, more briefly, in (for example) a New Yorker magazine article. One exception - the last 10 pages describe some of the scientist's insights into how this virus might have become so lethal. The too-brief discussion of these theories provides the reader with some food for thought. It is ashame that the author included so little material of this type. Summary - if your interest is with the people involved in this detective work, this book is worth a read. If your interest is in the underlying science this book will likely disappoint you.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
