Customer Reviews

Smallpox: The Fight to Eradicate a Global Scourge

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Smallpox: the Fight to Eradicate a Global Scourge is a thorough, multi-disciplinary overview of the debate whether or not to destroy the remaining known stocks of smallpox virus in Vector Laboratory in Russia and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. The beginning chapters provide readers with introductory knowledge of smallpox - its biology, its history, its use as a biological weapon, and its place as an issue in international environmental and health policy. Although each chapter in itself does not cover every issue of the subject (theoretically, each chapter could have been expanded upon to become its own book), Koplow presents an incredibly multi-disciplinary understanding of smallpox as a biological, historical, and political agent. For example, a chapter about environmental law and policy may seem unrelated to smallpox at first, but Koplow discusses many policy aspects that ultimately both are affected by smallpox and affect the development, use, and distribution of smallpox. Ultimately, each chapter serves as a building block to Koplow's final two chapters, one of which presents the argument for eradication and the other against the eradication. Koplow is professional and neutral in his presentation of the background knowledge; readers will not know whether he is for or against the extinction of smallpox until the final two chapters.

It is fairly apparent that the book is written for the general public - people who are unfamiliar with smallpox, biological weapons, and public health. For people who know little about these subjects, Koplow writes an incredible introduction to the numerous aspects of smallpox including its basic history and biology and the politics that surround the disease. This book is not tailored for people who are searching for in-depth discussion of the history or biology of smallpox. For people who are more educated about the issues, some sections may be cursory and too general. Still, I appreciated Koplow's approach to presenting an entire package of information about smallpox.

Perhaps what I enjoyed most about this book is how applicable its content is to today's world. Through his organization and style of writing, Koplow encourages his readers to think about smallpox as more than just an eradicated virus confined to the pages of a history or biology textbook. He succeeds in equipping the readers with the information and questions necessary to engage in the debate about extinction of smallpox. Furthermore, the framework of analysis and thought he uses to address smallpox could be used for any other infectious disease (such as HIV to which he makes numerous reference). Thus, Koplow doesn't tell his readers what to think about smallpox but how to think about public health issues in general. Koplow asks the question "should the remaining stocks of smallpox be destroyed?" and he shows that the answer to that question is anything but simple.

5/18/09 Kaplow's book (classified as politics/medicine on the back cover))in its Intro( Pgs 1 to 7) gives an excellent summary of what's to be expected in each of its 9 chapters(Where the Chapters endon Pg 238 , the Notes, Bibliography and Index complete the book's Pg 265[the book is designed like a "Cliff's notes with its black and yellow cover and microscopic germs design ,but it is absolutely not a "pony (a/k/a just cheat sheets"(unless "one would be tempted" to stop reading, after reading "the 7 Pages of Intro."(Although the "World Health Organization/WHO"* is not listed in the Index ,"it does hold its own" on the Content page ,informing readers that it is "all about 'WHO'* in Chapter 5(Pgs 137-157)...The text, on Pg 30, part of Chap 1(Pgs 9-31):"Rise and Fall of Smallpox" informs readers that no country(except Israel) any longer continues to give routine military vaccination on large scale),and that the USA & Russia possess the last "ampules of the variola virus"(called smallpox).(the USA-450 samples;Russia-120 isolates)...The book gives not only "much history to date of publication" about "the now extinct "smallpox" but also serious debates as to what to do with the USA & Russia supplies, based on the final word from WHO*.

Having just finished this book and Richard Prestons' Demon in the Freezer it would be hard to compare the two as they are obviously written for different purposes. Koplow obviously wants to make a political message and he does so quite succinctly at the end of this book in regards to whether smallpox samples should be destroyed or not.
It certainly adds to the debate and I find Koplow's arguments compelling but on such a momentous subject as this one would like to hear a range of argument and counter argument.
Koplow's book is not a page turner and it is not written by a professional author, Koplow was the Pentagon's senior legal adviser on biological war issues.
There are some hints within the book as to what other countries may be doing in the field of biological weapons research and I would imagine that Koplow was privileged to secrets the public will never know about.
All in all though if you are interested in this subject get this book and integrate it into your thinking. 4 stars for having a go on very difficult and dry topic.