Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

This non-fiction narrative about the initial reporting of and the search for origins of the SARS CoV-2 was a fascinating and enlightening read, as was David Quammen's previous book on a similar, broader topic, Spillover. During the pandemic, Quammen managed to monitor multiple virology databases and websites and interview over 95 eminent researchers and practitioners: infectious disease researchers, infectious disease ecologists, virologists, experts on the genetics and ecology of coronaviruses, evolutionary biologists, epidemiologists, public health officials, microbiologists, forensic DNA researchers, and more. He provides a brief biographical note on each person interviewed (for 1.5 - 2 hours on Zoom)  at the end of the book, along with an exhaustive bibliography of written sources consulted, and detailed notes on the text. He is truly an amazing researcher and science writer. He also clarifies some of the misinformation and out of context data that led to various conspiracy theories about the virus. Read his web page to find out why he was asked to write the book .

There are glowing reviews from multiple sources. The NYT closes with these quotes from the book: "'This virus is going to be with us forever,' Quammen warns, with a wealth of data and precedent to support him. We haven’t eradicated polio or measles. 'And those viruses have nowhere to hide except within humans.' This one could be cleared from every living human, and still exist in other animals. 'Covid-19 won’t be our last pandemic of the 21st century. It probably won’t be our worst.' In our international world, as one scientist tells Quammen, 'A disease anywhere is a disease everywhere.'” Similarly, The Guardian praises, "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...is one of them." And Kirkus concurs, "An authoritative new history of Covid-19 and its predecessors...Unsettling global health news brilliantly delivered by an expert."