"Engrossing true stories of the pioneers of epidemiology who risked their lives to find the source of deadly diseases--now revised to include updated information and a new chapter on COVID-19. More people have died in disease epidemics than in wars or other disasters, but the process of identifying these diseases and determining how they spread is often a terrifying gamble. Epidemiologists have been ignored, mocked, or silenced all while trying to...

"Informed and accessible overview of viruses and pandemics, how our immune system combats them, and how diagnostic tests, vaccines, and antiviral therapies work to form the foundation of public health"--

"From the masters of storytelling-meets-science and co-authors of Quackery, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks-how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Written in the authors' lively and accessible style, chapters include page-turning medical stories about a particular disease or virus-smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV-that...