Read the next installment: “Inception: The avian flu outbreak in Hong Kong, 1997”
Read the previous installment: “Introducing: Fowl Plague“
When we began the research process for our series on avian influenza, Fowl Plague, there was plenty of existing material to build on. Debate and discussion about the best response to emerging infectious diseases have been going on since the dawn of recorded history.
We wanted to share some of our research with you, so we’ve put together this comprehensive reading list that covers not only avian influenza but the mechanics and sociology of pandemics more generally. It’ll get you up to speed quickly on the basics of epidemiology, alongside a handful of case studies of historical events.
“The epidemic is seldom mentioned, and most Americans have apparently forgotten it. This is not surprising. The human mind always tries to expunge the intolerable from memory, just as it tries to conceal it while current.”
H. L. Mencken, 1956, on the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918
Start Here
If you’re only going to read one thing on this list, make it Wendy Orent‘s fantastic 2014 article for Aeon titled “How Plagues Really Work“.
She goes back through the history of humankind’s relationship with pathogens, building up a potent argument that the next pandemic will erupt not from untouched jungles or melting permafrost, but from densely-populated places like hospitals and refugee camps. Here’s an excerpt:
The Athenian plague shows how a disease of mild to moderate virulence can heat up in what we can only call a “‘disease factory’–a place where the sick are trapped together with the well, causing infection to spread like wildfire.
Read the full story.
Then Try
Dig into some of the main conversations surrounding the subject:
- This Is How The World Gets Sick
Michael T. Osterholm & Mark Olshaker, Fast Company [22-minute read] - The Public Is Us
Anya Groner, Guernica [14-minute read] - The Virus Hunters
Jeffrey Marlow, Undark [28-minute read] - How Zika Conquered the Americas
Ed Yong, The Atlantic [6-minute read] - Where Will The Next Pandemic Come From And How Can We Stop It?
David Quammen, Popular Science [27-minute read]
Dive Deeper
Now we’re opening the floodgates. Fantastic writing (in no particular order):
- Pale Rider review–painful lessons of the flu pandemic
Miranda Seymour, The Guardian [5-minute read] - The Deadliest Virus
Michael Specter, The New Yorker [20-minute read] - The Plague Year
Gina Kolata, The New York Times [6-minute read] - Preparing for the Next Pandemic
Michael T. Osterholm, Foreign Affairs [23-minute read] - An Ebola Doctor’s Return From The Edge of Death
Denise Grady, The New York Times [11-minute read] - Nature’s Most Perfect Killing Machine
Leigh Cowart, Hazlitt [18-minute read] - Flu Warning: Beware the Drug Companies
Helen Epstein, The New York Review of Books [2-minute read] - As Earth Warms, the Diseases That May Lie within Permafrost Become a Bigger Worry
Sara Goudarzi, Scientific American [4-minute read]
Books
- Gina Kolata–Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It
- Michael Greger–Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching
- Laurie Garrett–The Coming Plague
- Michael T. Osterholm & Mark Olshaker–Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs
- David Quammen–Spillover
- Steven Johnson–The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic
- Laura Spinney–Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World (released in the US on September 12, 2017)
Watch and Listen
If you prefer to learn in audiovisual form, here are a bunch of themed documentaries and podcasts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUTatmgwQo0
- Flu Factories: Tracing the Origins of the Swine Flu Epidemic
A one-hour presentation on the role that factory farming plays in the emergence of flu pandemics.
- My Wish: Help Stop The Next Pandemic
TED Prize winner 2006 Larry Brilliant and what needs to be done to identify and contain pandemics before they spread.
- Avian Flu
A short documentary covering the basics of avian influenza.
- Talking Biotech: Stopping Avian Flu Spread
An episode of the Talking Biotech podcast that covers generically engineered chickens that don’t spread avian flu.
- Laurie Garrett: What Can we Learn From the 1918 Flu?
An excellent TED talk from the Pulitzer-prize winning Laurie Garrett
Read the next installment: “Inception: The avian flu outbreak in Hong Kong, 1997”
Read the previous installment: “Introducing: Fowl Plague“
How We Get To Next was a magazine that explored the future of science, technology, and culture from 2014 to 2019. Fowl Plague is a five-part series that explores the history of deadly global pandemics–and asks whether we’re ready to respond to the next one.
