Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris

Title: Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris
Author: Mark Honigsbaum
History: 1703376
ISBN: 9780393541311
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2020
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Edition: Illustrated
Number of Pages: 480
Section: Medical | Epidemiology
Condition Note: Excellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.
Publisher Description:

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. Now updated with a new chapter and epilogue.