Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

I picked this up during the covid pandemic, but did not have the stomach to read it until years later. Fortunately, it turned out to be less traumatic than I feared. The book is excellent in every respect. It combines deep, clear scientific explanations with just the right amount if narrative storytelling to be highly readable. I frequently get bored with books halfway through, but I read this through with out significant interruption because it was so interesting.The only downside (which was not enough to take off a star) is the author's long winded imagining of the origin of AIDS. It felt unnecessary and kind of disrespectful to the people he was imagining - including, in one case, to a real life Congolese woman who he casually assumes to be a whore. It just wasn't necessary, or helpful, or insightful.

Overall: This book is an absolute masterpiece. Epic in scope, brilliant in how it is all connected, very relevant to today, and extremely eye opening and illuminating. Not an easy read but absolutely worth it! 10/10Summary:Much of this story is detailing Quammen's adventures and research following various zoonosis around the world.Fun fact: Historically, some 60 percent of the infections that plague humankind, from influenza to H.I.V. and bubonic plague, all originated in the bodies of other animals.This book is neatly divided into sections based around a certain zoonosis or a group of similar ones. Each section is a meticulous telling of the origin, history, pertinent findings and research, development, and current state of these various zoonotic diseases.Take home message: eat more plants and chocolate!Note: though this book is all about zoonosis it should not cause the reader to panic or be scared about them. “Spillover” hardly touches on such pandemic-­worthy animal pathogens as avian flu or multi-drug-resistant bacteria, rather, it fully describes the unfolding convergence between veterinary science and human medicine, and how veterinary-­minded medical experts discover and track diseases that spread across species. “Spillover” is less public health warning than ecological affirmation: these crossovers force us to uphold “the old Darwinian truth (the darkest of his truths, well known and persistently forgotten) that humanity is a kind of animal” — with a shared fate on the planet. “People and gorillas, horses and duikers and pigs, monkeys and chimps and bats and viruses,” Quammen writes. “We’re all in this together.”“When a pathogen leaps from some nonhuman animal into a person, and succeeds there in establishing itself as an infectious presence, sometimes causing illness or death, the result is a zoonosis.”The Good: I loved this book! Granted it is a subject I am very interested in but I listened to it with my husband who has no medical or animal background, and he immensely enjoyed it as well. The storytelling is amazing, it really does read like a narrative and I felt swept away at many points that I had to remind myself this was nonfiction. Another major positive is the scope. This book has SO MUCH information and yes, you absolutely have to pay attention, but the author does a great job at bringing everything together and explaining difficult to understand topics. It is a blend of science, history, ecology, anthropology, immunology, research, and all presented cohesively in a narrative that grips you with every chapter. My favorite section of all was Ebola. Overall, this book is phenomenal, very relevant to current events, and I learned so much while listening to it. Highly recommend.The Bad: There were a few chapters in the section on AIDS that the author was speculating and theorizing that I was not a fan of. I preferred the remainder of the book which was all based on facts and science that I found these few chapters distracting and out of place. Some sections are dense in material that you really do need to be paying attention in order to keep up. I found this to be a positive though as I really learned a lot while reading this book.

Once I saw the subject of David Quammen's latest book, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, I was determined to get my hands on and read it as soon as possible. True - and it is worth every dollar I spent. Likely the next big pandemic will be the result of a spillover virus of some kind. A spillover describes a zoonoses, infectious diseases, that originate in animals and spread to humans.Quammen explains:"When a pathogen leaps from some nonhuman animal into a person, and succeeds there in establishing itself as an infectious presence, sometimes causing illness or death, the result is a zoonosis. (pg.20)" "Ebola is a zoonosis. So is bubonic plague. So was the so-called Spanish influenza of 1918-19 [which killed] as many as 50 million people...(pg. 21)"And:"Emergence and spillover are distinct concepts but interconnected. 'Spillover' is the term used by disease ecologists... to denote the moment when a pathogen passes from members of one species, as host, into members of another. It's a focused event. (pg. 43)"Viruses/diseases discussed include: Ebola, Hendra, hantaviruses, influenza (H5N1, H1N1), Lyme disease, herpes B, the Black Death (perhaps), hepatitis C, AIDS, SARS, dengue, rabies, Marburg, Nipah, Marchupo, yellow fever, Lassa, HIV, and more. It's very likely that most of the virulent viruses we fear begin as a spillover zoonosis. Certainly every time we hear of a new flu virus, we will also hear where it is suspected that it originated from, be it swine or bird.What is truly frightening is that, while the big outbreaks of these viruses seem to be limited, in reality the viruses, like Ebola, are present all the time. Predicting or anticipating when an outbreak will occur is impossible. It is helpful to know what animals carry the viruses. Add to that knowledge the reality that today an infected person or potential carrier of a deadly virus can fly across the world in a short amount of time.It is quite interesting to read Quammen account revealing that "AIDS began with a spillover from one chimp to one human, in southeastern Cameroon, no later than 1908 (give or take a margin of error) and grew slowly but inexorably from there. (pg. 427)"One of the many great qualities of Spillover is the accessibility of Quammen's writing. He creates a palatable sense of drama and anticipation in this very informative nonfiction account. He informs and entertains; even while imparting serious information, he includes witty, humorous comments. I enjoyed this book very much.Get your flu shot and read Spillover. Today.Very Highly Recommended - one of the best

In the age of unbridled ignorance this book should be on the bookshelf of everyone. For people with an education in science, even base level science, it opens new, worrying, terrifying prospects for our future. For those, instead, which lack any scientific education, reading this book will be like opening a window on the real face of Nature. In both cases, I highly recommend to read it, no matter its publication is now 11 years in the past.Natural Selection is, once again, the leitmotif of it all. Random mutation followed by logical selection based on environmental pressures is key. That, and human behaviour. Is right the author when he states that variability in human behaviour is a major factor when it comes to the spreading potential of a new bug. Covid story is still fresh in our memories, after all. Refusing to adopt a reasonable, respectful and rational behaviour is the fastest way to catastrophe. The price we pay everytime there’s a new pandemic - and there have been quite a few since we started to collect data and to study old events - is incredibly high. It is surely higher than the price we should pay to avert the next pandemic. This last message in my opinion is important: many people believe that their life is utterly detached from the environment in which they live so why should they go all the way to pay huge sums of money to avert something that might happen tomorrow as well as in the next 100 years? Risk assessment is not even an option in the mind of common citizens. Unfortunately, though, the so-called “next Big One” will, sooner or later, hit us, like COVID did. Once again we will be forced to adopt again those strict measures that we all hated so much. We hated them because they limited our lives, cutting our rights. Only understanding the seriousness of a pandemic could bring people to reason. Again, this book is enlightening in this respect.I learned a lot from reading it. In some places it is worse than horror movies - if one catches the implications of dynamics described by the author. It’s a series of stories for everyone, written in a magnificent way, full of chilling details.In the end, one cannot help but think that as a society we don’t understand the world we live in. We are changing the planet in so many terrible ways that we are constantly creating those conditions that will allow, once again, the “jump” of a virus, or a “bug”, from the “wild” world to the “civilized” world. Once that jump is accomplished, our hyper connected world will allow it to travel the globe in a matter of hours. It happened in the past, many times. It will happen again. The only logical question is, “when?”.

I am a biology buff. I read anything related to biology right from research papers to Medium blogs. This book has been the most engrossing read so far! The author's command on the subject shows very clearly in his writing. It is a must read to understand the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic by the virtue of all the important past disease outbreaks that the author talks about in the book. Go for it, you will be wiser at the end of the book.

Amazingly written book that has been compelling in each section and offers great insights. It goes into great detail on the biology (ecology, evolution, and genetics) of many zoonotic diseases, yet is written in a way that is accessible to readers from all walks of life. Terrifyingly accurate in predictions on future "spillover" events. Great read.

Livro de autoria de David Quammen, escritor reconhecido pelos suas obras sobre ciência, natureza e viagens. Escrito em 2012, mas lido durante a pandemia de Covid-19, é de uma atualidade fenomenal.Spillover é um termo técnico para doenças que migram de animais para seres humanos. Muito se fala de um aumento de pandemias e do surgimento de novas doenças a partir de preconceitos (étnicos e políticos). Não sou da área de saúde ou ciência, mas lendo o livro fica claro que a destruição de florestas, a falta de alimentos ou do processamento dos alimentos são as causas mais frequentes de novas doenças.O livro é de fácil leitura e bastante envolvente. O autor visitou in loco boa parte dos locais descritos no livro, portanto, cada capítulo é uma aventura na qual o leitor fica esperando o que vai acontecer e quem será o “culpado” (uma raposa-voadora, um primata superior, um esquilo?). O mais intrigante é que para muitas doenças nem sequer há uma resposta definitiva, como é o caso do Ebola, onde existem suspeitos, mas não condenados.Destaco especialmente o capítulo referente ao vírus HIV, que tem seu surgimento rastreado ao início do século XX, o que desbanca uma série de preconceitos do século XXI. O caminho percorrido para descobrir a origem desse malfadado vírus é realmente uma obra prima de história e ciência.Livro altamente recomendado, especialmente no momento que estamos vivendo.

Muy interesante, informativo y ameno. No es un inglés técnico, sino periodístico