Barry: The Great Influenza
From Scienticity
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John M. Barry, The Great Influenza : The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History. New York : Penguin Books, 2005. 546 pages; illustrated; includes bibliographical references and index.
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry covers many topics. It is the story of the flu pandemic that spread through the world in 1918. To cover the story of the illness you have to cover the doctors who treated it and searched for a cure. So you have to cover how medical education in America went from being a profession anyone who could pay the fee could enter to being science based and rigorous. And you have to talk about the political situation and censorship in World-War-I America. And how technology was rapidly changing. And then there is the disease process itself. This book covers so much territory it would be easy to get confusing or boring.
It doesn't become either. I found it completely fascinating. As the title says, there was a massive epidemic of flu. With America's mobilization for war and new transportation capabilities it spread quickly. It was lethal in a different way as the majority of deaths occurred to those between 20-34, as opposed to normal flu which kills the elderly and young children, usually from complications like pneumonia. And it was rapid, sometimes killing within a day of the first symptom. Hospitals were completely overwhelmed. Politicians made mistake after mistake, censoring news of the illness to try to keep up morale, continuing to ramp up the army even as the war was almost over. Doctors and nurses literally sacrificed themselves to their patients. The brilliant medical minds throughout the world tried to fight the problem. Their research later led to major discoveries about humanity.
In covering what we (should have, hopefully have) learned from this pandemic Barry also touches on various current diseases, like SARS, bird flu, AIDS and ebola, and how the next pandemic may begin and spread. It is scary but important to know about. I recommend this book highly.
-- Notes by MKI
