Bibliograph

The pandemic century, one hundred years of panic, hysteria, and hubris, Mark Honigsbaum

Type

Label

The pandemic century, one hundred years of panic, hysteria, and hubris, Mark Honigsbaum

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Illustrations

platesillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The pandemic century

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1147897810

Responsibility statement

Mark Honigsbaum

Sub title

one hundred years of panic, hysteria, and hubris

Summary

"How can we understand the COVID-19 pandemic? Ever since the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, scientists have dreamed of preventing such catastrophic outbreaks of infectious disease. Yet despite a century of medical progress, viral and bacterial disasters continue to take us by surprise, inciting panic and dominating news cycles. In The Pandemic Century, a lively account of scares both infamous and less known, medical historian Mark Honigsbaum combines reportage with the history of science and medical sociology to artfully reconstruct epidemiological mysteries and the ecology of infectious diseases. We meet dedicated disease detectives, obstructive or incompetent public health officials, and brilliant scientists often blinded by their own knowledge of bacteria and viruses--and see how fear of disease often exacerbates racial, religious, and ethnic tensions"

Table Of Contents

Sharks and other predators -- The Blue Death -- Plague in the city of Angels -- The Great Parrot Fever pandemic -- The "Philly killer" -- Legionnaires' Redux -- Aids in America, Aids in Africa -- SARS: "Super spreader" -- Ebola at the borders -- Z is for Zika -- Disease X -- The pandemic century

Classification