Compelling and terrifying ... Breathless is so good that I was slow to realize that it lacks the vivid you-are-there details of Spillover. That’s because he wasn’t there ... A different species of tour de force ... These barriers didn’t prevent him from writing a luminous, passionate account of the defining crisis of our time — and the unprecedented international response to it ... Quammen marries an old-fashioned love of colorful language to his passion for detail — an odd coupling that results not just in a lucid book about an important topic, but also in a book that’s a pleasure to read.
Mr. Quammen, a prolific science journalist and author, uncovers all sorts of details about the efforts to investigate the spread of Covid and discern the features that made it so menacing. Breathless is not a political book and touches only briefly on the failures of institutions and leaders to mount an adequate response to the pandemic. Instead, it is an engagingly written chronicle of scientific inquiry. Along the way, Mr. Quammen introduces us to important researchers who, until now, have been largely unknown ... Mr. Quammen devotes considerable time to exploring the efforts to pinpoint the virus’s origin. Ultimately he concludes that Covid jumped from one species to another and entered the human population. He has plenty of expertise on that process.
Sweeping, deeply reported ... Breathless builds suspense and drama throughout its early chapters, the false moves and authentic leaps as the global scientific community kicked into high gear. Quammen balances the gravitas of his topic with conversational wit, drilling deep into his characters ... Quammen can’t help getting technical...but he sprinkles in cheeky humor that leavens the mood ... Breathless...is an invaluable, vibrant contribution to that literature, arguably the single most comprehensive account of the disease and the clinicians who have labored long and hard to divine its mysteries.
Quammen takes readers step by step through the genetic and epidemiological data ... Through his conversations with experts in virus ecology and evolution, readers learn the nuances of how virologists do research and the controversies of gain-of-function studies that test what happens when viruses acquire new traits ... As a science journalist who has followed SARS-CoV-2 since its discovery, I found Breathless to be surprisingly cathartic. My memories of the last few years have blurred together. Breathless presents the sweeping scientific story of the pandemic, connecting puzzle pieces that at the time had felt so out of place.
Few writers are able to understand the strings of amino acids that give these viruses their distinctive codes, let alone relate them to other Sars-like viruses. And even fewer possess the literary gifts necessary to make the genomics comprehensible to lay readers. Fortunately, David Quammen, whose previous works include books on Ebola and other viruses that periodically infect humans, is one of them ... This not only allows him to leaven the science with vivid pen portraits but makes him a shrewd judge of character. What emerges is a viral howdunnit that is pacy and unafraid to educate readers in the nuances of gain of function and the wider ecology of pandemics without straying into invective ... Quammen addresses each theory and concern in exemplary fashion ... perhaps the real value of this book is that Quammen brings a naturalist’s eye to these debates. At the end, one is left with a deep appreciation of the diversity of nature and the serendipity of natural selection, which every day is shuffling and rearranging the genomes of viruses in ways that scientists can only begin to imagine.
Quammen recounts in page-turning detail the scientific response to the Covid-19 pandemic ... This is a must-read for anyone looking to get a better handle on the pandemic so far.
Authoritative ... In addition to a hair-raising account of the ongoing pandemic, the author delivers an insightful education on public health and an introduction to numerous deadly epidemics over the past 50 years. He also educates readers about the centurylong history of the coronavirus ... Unsettling global health news brilliantly delivered by an expert.
