7 votes

What are some good books about pandemics, epidemiology, and/or infectious diseases?

Understandably, my interest has piqued on this topic cluster (as I'm sure it has for many others), and I should have more time than usual to read in the coming weeks. I also am spending far too long jumping around aimlessly to assorted news articles and would like to tame that nervous energy into a more focused approach on longer writings.

While I'm interested in non-fiction primarily, I'm also open to fiction suggestions. Also, anything that lands in the ballpark of what we're dealing right now with the novel coronavirus fits (though it certainly doesn't have to be specific to coronavirus, nor COVID-19).

5 comments

  1. deathmtn
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    I picked up Global Catastrophic Risks for the chapter on what will happen to the universe long after humans are gone, but I'm now reading the chapter on epidemics. It's interesting how...

    I picked up Global Catastrophic Risks for the chapter on what will happen to the universe long after humans are gone, but I'm now reading the chapter on epidemics. It's interesting how "preventable" many of them were, but of course, people in the midst of them did not have hindsight to convince them.

    It's not a book, but if your local library system offers Kanopy, I highly recommend the Great Courses lecture series on the Black Death. The varied reactions to an incredible (and recurring) death rate was particularly interesting.

    4 votes
  2. pseudolobster
    Link
    I haven't read it, but I've heard rave reviews of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46722.The_Coming_Plague

    I haven't read it, but I've heard rave reviews of The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46722.The_Coming_Plague

    3 votes
  3. cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    I can't personally vouch for them, since I haven't read them yet myself... but Michael Osterholm (Director of CIDRAP) was recently on Joe Rogan's podcast, struck me as a remarkably knowledgeable...

    I can't personally vouch for them, since I haven't read them yet myself... but Michael Osterholm (Director of CIDRAP) was recently on Joe Rogan's podcast, struck me as a remarkably knowledgeable person on the subject, and mentioned having several books out related to his work:
    Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs
    Living Terrors: What America Needs to Know to Survive the Coming Bioterrorist Catastrophe

    2 votes
  4. Deimos
    Link
    I can't really recommend anything in particular, but Cambridge University Press has made all of their textbooks free to access until the end of May:...

    I can't really recommend anything in particular, but Cambridge University Press has made all of their textbooks free to access until the end of May: https://www.cambridge.org/core/what-we-publish/textbooks

    The filtering on it is a little confusing (make sure to filter to books in the "Content type" section of the sidebar), but I see at least one promising title in the Medicine section:

    I haven't looked around much yet, but there might also be some relevant ones in other sections as well.

    2 votes
  5. Sberg
    (edited )
    Link
    The Panic Virus and (edit:) The Hot Zone : The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus

    The Panic Virus and (edit:) The Hot Zone : The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus

    1 vote