Spillover

David Quammen is the author of several books, including The Song of the Dodo. He has received the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing, an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN Award for the Art of the Essay, and the National Magazine Award (three times). Quammen is also a National Geographic contributor. He currently resides in Bozeman, Montana.

Spillover is the book for you if you're interested in infectious or zoonotic diseases. David Quammen investigates the causes and consequences of spillover, the phenomenon in which a new pathogen is transmitted to humans from wildlife. He follows scientists around the world as they investigate the origins of diseases such as ebola and avian flu, taking them through remote jungles and high-security labs.

The novel coronavirus engulfed the world in a global pandemic in 2020, killing hundreds of thousands. Bats are the source of the previously unknown virus. This phenomenon, in which a new pathogen enters humans from wildlife, is known as spillover, and it may happen again soon.

Prior to the emergence of our most recent health crisis, renowned science writer David Quammen was traveling the world to better understand the devastating potential of spillover. For five years, he followed scientists to a Bangladeshi rooftop, a Congolese forest, a Chinese rat farm, and a New York suburbia woodland, as well as high-biosecurity laboratories. He spoke with survivors and gathered stories from the dead. He discovered surprises in the most recent research, alarm among public health officials, and deep concern among researchers.

Among the best books on infectious disease, Spillover is a gripping drama that conveys the science, history, mystery, and human anguish of disease outbreaks. And it poses questions that are more pressing than ever before: What innocent creature, in what remote landscape, will give birth to the Next Big One? Are pandemics separate misfortunes, or are they linked? Are they just happening to us, or are we causing them? What options are there? Quammen investigates the origins of Ebola, Marburg, SARS, avian influenza, Lyme disease, and other bizarre cases of spillover, including the harrowing, unexpected story of how AIDS began with a single Cameroonian chimp. The end result is more than just a clear work of reporting. It's also an elegantly told story about a journey through time and landscape in search of a new understanding of how our world works—and how we can survive within it.

Author: David Quammen

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Spillover-Animal-Infections-Human-Pandemic-ebook/dp/B00856PC4K/

Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars (from 2722 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #72,577 in Kindle Store

#2 in Microbiology (Kindle Store)

#3 in Epidemiology (Kindle Store)

#5 in Communicable Diseases (Kindle Store)