Influenza: The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic

If you want to learn more about flu-type viruses while living under a "Stay at Home Order," this book offers a very good introduction. The author discusses some fascinating aspects of humankind's efforts during the past 100 years to understand and cope with the many types of these viruses. Written in a clear style which explains the science at an understandable level (for anyone with at least a HS education), I learned a lot of interesting information, much of it relevant to our current situation. The good news: medical science has gained a lot of experience and knowledge since the devastating Spanish Flu pandemic. The bad news: we still lack an effective vaccine and treatments for most of these viruses. Even worse news: despite repeated outbreaks of viruses that make the leap from birds and animals to humans, our government (at least in the US) has been and continues to be woefully unprepared. Perhaps all of this seems obvious now, but the reasons become more clear as the author discusses some important scientific and political roadblocks to an effective national response. While reading this book I was reminded of the saying "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it".

This book is a fascinating and well-told story of influenza throughout history, especially the 1918 pandemic. The epilogue is especially haunting in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21. I hope the author is working on an update or, perhaps, a new book about this latest pandemic.

Written recently, but before SARS 2 so up date on technical matters, and the recent recovery, after many false starts, of the virus from a body buried below the permafrost in Alaska. Virus is now in the medical equivalent of Fort Knox.Interesting that Spanish Flue is a misnomer and due to Spain being neutral during WWI so the epidemic widely published in Spain, whereas the belligerents had strict censorship on this and other matters. Origin was in the US (Ohio?) so should have been called the American Flue.Not covered in the book is the question of the effect of the US entrance into WWI. Undoubtedly a major morale booster for the Allies, but the effect of the spread of the flue from the arriving Americans on the French, British and other allies was profound: the decease was extraordinarily nasty with coughing so violent as to rupture muscles and skin discoloration intense to the point that race could not be determined, very few survivors.

Please read this book! I listened to my grandmother's takes of this pandemic. She lost one of her 9 brothers to it. It left one brother with lifelong lung problems. Being a curious child and teen I listened to a lot of first person accounts. All remembered the fear. For years many were reluctant to go to a hospital because they associated it with unnumbered dead and dying. And, of course, I myself endured a double diagnosis of flu and pneumonia . I found the book fascinating and factual. And I read it at the beginning of another novel virus pandemic covid 19 or corona virus. Exhibiting mild symptoms of some kind of flu I was e encouraged to not seem testing. To stay home and treat the symptoms unless I became unable to breathe. Which I've done..Stayed home, away from other members of my family and sterilizing everywhere I've been. And eating chicken soup....

This book provided the much-needed context of the pandemic in light of what was happening in the world that affected the severity and transmission. This pandemic occurred when medical science was new, microscopes were not used, blood-letting was still a medical treatment, and all this wrapped around Pres Wilson's WWI. A must read for infection control health care workers who want to understand that pandemics are not just about the pathogen but all the fear and lack of basic care that drives pandemics. Easy to understand science of pandemics even for the non-medical person and an interesting take on the mechanics of America's role in WWI. Read it.

Jeremy Brown has written an intelligent, engaging and very well-written book about an issue that is both historic and (alarmingly) contemporary. He has a very easy writing style, with occasional irreverently humorous comments. (Little has changed since I taught him in HIgh School some 40 years ago.... the cleverest student I ever had.). Most of all, he has a great curiosity about the world, which shows through clearly in this book, and - a rare, precious quality for a writer - communicates itself to the reader, who is drawn into the topic. If you enjoy medical / scientific/ sociological ‘whodunnits’, you will love this book - a great read, and a great gift!It should be mentioned that he is an amazingly diverse polymath, who glides from arcane subject (Emergency Medicine, Medieval science, the history of ideas, obscure rabbinic texts) to arcane subject. Keep writing, please - the best is yet to come!

Reading this story is informative and sad. This book which was published in late 2018, talks about all the issues of a pandemic. Unfortunately, in 2020, we were no further ahead for fighting the coronavirus instead of influenza virus as described in the book. Again we need to be cautioned about accepting therapies as proven, when they are nothing but Big Pharma propaganda.i.e Tamiflu, which changes the course of the influenza by 1 day or even using Influenza vaccine on healthy middle aged adults where data shows that it takes over 70 patients treated to prevent one death. Lastly, this is not 1918 and we do know the enemy and surprisingly despite all the tech advances it is still “us”. Our overindulgences and our focus on only ourselves remain as they were 100 years ago.

The recent SARS pandemic is expected and the consequences are predictable. Reading this book sets expectations of death rates, vulnerability, length of the pandemic, length of episodic up surges, etc. No one should be allowed to comment on the pandemic unless they have read and learned this information. Kudos to the author

Fantastic read, with humor, particularly good insights relevant to the gigantic kaos going on at the moment.

The pros of this book:- it was very well researched by a qualified medical doctor- I learned a lot about influenza and flu pandemicsThe negatives:- It's not a long book: don't be fooled by the page count ... around one third of the pages are references and bibliography!- I was expecting more insight into the 1918 pandemic, whereas this book took many tangents to discuss the flu in generalIn summary, for the money I would imagine there are deeper dives into the whole subject. I did learn a lot though.