As Osmundson dives into the intricacies of science and medicine, he also takes time to consider the emotional toll of gauging health risks...In a world full of viruses—and especially in light of the most recent pandemic—we will always face the risk of infection, he says...He thus challenges readers to 'reframe the very notion of risk, of fear' since 'the more we all minimize risk, the less there is to fear'...Though perhaps eschewing this fear is easier said than done since, as he writes, 'there are 250 million viruses in every 0.001 liters of ocean water, and so 7,393,387,354, more than 7 billion viruses, in 1 single fluid ounce, a mouthful'...As a queer person, Osmundson candidly shares the moments he has calculated the risk of contracting HIV while having sex...At the same time, Osmundson points out that being queer provides him and others with a 'legacy and a history of care even in the face of systemic oppression'...Despite the ubiquity of viruses and their variety, Osmundson illustrates that humans and viruses evolve together. Recognizing this provides hope for all of us, he insists, especially through the development of vaccines...A collection that weaves together the raggedness of the personal with the chaos of the political... Sparkling prose, glittering insights, lucid thinking and accessible writing about sometimes difficult topics makes Virology a must-read...It’s one of the best science and medicine books of the year.
We are tasked, writes Osmundson, now as ever, 'to sacrifice, in the face of a virus, to care for one another, and yet to never lose sight of pleasure, even when both the present and the future seem impossible'...In this scrupulous and impassioned manifesto, Osmundson looks at the nature of disease—and its impact on individuals and communities—through a distinctly queer lens.
Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between by Joseph Osmundson establishes itself as a unique and singular archive of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2), HIV/AIDS, queer theory, sociopolitical criticism, and a record of the viruses that are present in our guts, on our skin, and in our blood...Osmundson turns hard science into juicy, racy-queer reality accessible to anyone who decides to buy the book, read it, and live it...COVID-19 and its profound parallel to the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, both viral infections with us to this day, shows how both have redefined, in their individual ways, the way we live day to day..Virology is its own technology motivating the mind to think, write, speak, be queer, and live louder...Every inch of life is viral in distinctive yet consistent ways, entities that spread the more we live our lives, a virus being the submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates inside the living cells of an organism.
