Pandemics books, authors, and tweets: The best stories about the worst diseases. - Slate Magazine

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">The germs have been busy. In the United States this year alone, we've lost people both to old enemies such as <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/outbreaks.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">whooping cough</a> and to relatively new spillovers from other animals, such as<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/outbreaks/yosemite-national-park-2012.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">hantavirus</a> and <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">West Nile virus</a>, which killed more than 240 Americans this year, a record. Diseases we've come to think of as utterly foreign, such as dengue fever, are <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/dengue_fever_in_united_states_breakbone_fever_outbreaks_florida_texas_and.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; ">spreading through the United States</a>. Meanwhile, further afield but far too near, we've seen two separate<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/outbreaks/index.htm" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Ebola outbreaks</a>; one of <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/outbreaks/index.htm%23marburg-uganda-2012" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Marburg</a>; alarming blips of <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/qfever/stats/index.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Q fever</a>; an unsettling and unsettled game of whack-a-mole in the Mideast with a new <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/12/coronavirus-four/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">SARS-like coronavirus</a>; and the news that because gonorrhea <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/gonorrhea-one-drug/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">has now developed resistance</a> to yet another antibiotic, we possess <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/std/gonorrhea/arg/default.htm" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">just <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">one</em></a> that still gives pause to this old intimate. If that drug stops working before we develop a better one, expect a <a href="http://www.ncsddc.org/who-we-are/press-releases/resistance-treatment-rising-cdc-updates-gonorrhea-treatment-guidelines" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">steady drip</a> of ugly cases.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">More bad-bug news pops up almost weekly, and it stands to get worse for a while, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/12/the-end-of-antibiotics-health-infections" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">maybe for decades</a>. More bacterial strains will develop antibiotic resistance, and our continuing <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/feature/quammen_the_next_pandemic_will_come_from_wildlife/2579/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">disruption of virus-rich</a> and <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/fungal_diseases_bats_frogs_and_humans_are_at_risk_from_new_fungi.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; ">fungus-rich</a> ecosystems worldwide will invite yet more pathogens to make us part of their life cycles. We will live increasingly in a world where you might die because a bat happened to sleep in a certain tree in Tanzania or a <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/superspreaders_of_disease_sars_and_other_pandemics_are_spread_by_modern.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; ">particular robin</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">landed in your backyard</a>.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Pandemic diseases hold an irresistible allure for both writers and readers, as they involve threats both universal and personal, deep scientific mysteries from cellular to ecosystem levels, and urgent scientific sleuthing with high stakes. If the subject sometimes lends itself to oversimplified and sensationalistic journalism, it has also inspired a bounty of writing that is riveting while being thoughtful, nuanced, and deeply informed. And this work comes in every form and length, from 140-character tweets to 600-page global tours.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Here I offer a guide to the best of this work. I've drawn from my own reading and from the suggestions of top infectious-disease writers (more on them shortly). We'll start long, with books, and end, as we should, with tweeted expirations of germ-inflected wisdom.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">Best Books</strong></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">We face an embarrassment of riches here, and if it's hard to know where to start, it's easy to name a fivesome that will immerse you in the drama of pandemics both past and future while giving a fine understanding of the science. </div></div><div class="parbase image slate_image section" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div class="sl-art-illo-cntr" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: none; text-align: center; width: 568px; display: block; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Ni2k6_7mFpsQXgzLGL_-44LLLJt7FRwr75pykdYPWw6hWhsUvfsBATi7SkWghhs5GuezxmR81rZhvzhbXJ1Et7NcbiU6Ytf_gYAQn-0LaCxw023whThj3qjrOSv4GsHiwdsuxWAwQIQ/s1600/original-716184"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5837046168904096370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Ni2k6_7mFpsQXgzLGL_-44LLLJt7FRwr75pykdYPWw6hWhsUvfsBATi7SkWghhs5GuezxmR81rZhvzhbXJ1Et7NcbiU6Ytf_gYAQn-0LaCxw023whThj3qjrOSv4GsHiwdsuxWAwQIQ/s320/original-716184" /></a></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Leading the way almost 20 years ago, and still absolutely trenchant today, is Laurie Garrett's<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140250913/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0140250913" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance</em></a>, which vividly and judiciously reports the global forces creating a new infectious age. It remains essential reading, with astounding prescience.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Warm from the presses, meanwhile, comes David Quammen's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393066800/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0393066800" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic</em></a>—one of the year's best books of any kind. This rich, engrossing work entrances as much with its darting literary elegance and deep humanity as with its exquisitely measured, layered reveal of the global strands binding us to a world of beauty and death.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Equally riveting is <a href="http://www.slate.com/authors.maryn_mckenna.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; ">Maryn McKenna's</a> way-too-close-to-home <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005DI7IBS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005DI7IBS" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">SuperBug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA</em></a>. This bacterium (methicillin-resistant <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Staphylococcus aureus</em>) is everywhere these days, including, perhaps, on your keyboard and almost certainly on your nose. As McKenna makes vivid, its spread and its increasing resistance to antibiotics can turn a routine cut or hospital visit into a deadly saga.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Finally, there are the classics <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ZNJXXU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002ZNJXXU" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Microbe Hunters</em></a>, Paul de Kruif's 1934 account of how the bug-hunters got started, and John Barry's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143036491/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0143036491" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History</em></a>, which makes scary reading anytime near flu season.</div></div><div class="pagebreak section" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "></div><a name="pagebreak_anchor_2" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; visibility: hidden; "></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; "></span><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">Longreads</strong></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"<a href="http://superbugthebook.com/about-the-book/excerpt/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">The First Alert</a>," from Maryn McKenna's <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; "><a href="http://superbugthebook.com/about-the-book/description/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">SuperBug</a></em>, tells of a 13-year-old boy's battle with MRSA. "<a href="http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-08/out-wild?single-page-view=true&src=longreads&buffer_share=07093&utm_source=buffer" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Where Will the Next Pandemic Come From? And How Can We Stop It?</a>," in <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Popular Science</em>, opens the puzzle box that David Quammen explores at more length in <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; "><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393066800/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0393066800" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Spillover</a></em>. In "<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/10/the-hunt-for-the-origin-of-aids/306490/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">The Hunt for the Origin of AIDS</a>," in the<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; "> Atlantic</em>, Jon Cohen sifts through AIDS-origin theories both well-founded and weird.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">"<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/magazine/07FLU.html?pagewanted=all&%23038;position=" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">The Flu Hunters</a>," a classic piece by <a href="http://www.gretchenreynolds.com/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Gretchen Reynolds</a> in the <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">New York Times Magazine</em>, follows the hunt, far from over, to figure out how to prevent future flu pandemics on the scale of the one that <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/spanish_flu_mystery_why_don_t_scientists_understand_the_1918_flu_even_after.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; ">killed 20 million to 50 million people in 1918</a>. "<a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/ff_rabies/all/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Undead: The Rabies Virus Remains a Medical Mystery</a>," in <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Wired</em>, an excerpt from the new book by <a href="http://www.jhsph.edu/offices-and-services/practice-and-training/resources/public-health-on-the-inside-podcast/2011-07-rabies-hunter-monica-murphy.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Monica Murphy</a> and <a href="http://billwasik.com/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Bill Wasik</a>, <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; "><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670023736/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0670023736" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Rabid</a></em>, shows how bizarre this old affliction is; some of the comments are as unsettling as the story. <a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/author-bios/Bruce-Barcott.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Bruce Barcott</a>'s "<a href="http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/north-america/united-states/national-parks/Death-at-Yosemite-The-Story-Behind-Last-Summers-Hantavirus-Outbreak.html?page=all" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Death at Yosemite</a>," in <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Outside</em>, shows how zoonotic diseases such as the much more obscure hantavirus can pop up, suddenly and fatally, even in the most sublime settings.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Finally, "<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/01/121001fa_fact_groopman?currentPage=all&pink=GjJ6ve&mobify=0" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">The Rise of Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea</a>," by Jerome Groopman at <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">The New Yorker</em>, has some unsettling news about the human pharynx. And his colleague Michael Specter, in "<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/11/15/101115fa_fact_specter" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">A Deadly Misdiagnosis</a>," shows how misguided attempts to fight tuberculosis—possibly the disease that most threatens us—may actually strengthen its hand. Don't read this while you have a cough.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">Breaking News and Analysis</strong></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Health and science sections of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/health/index.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">New York Times</em></a><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">, </em><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/global-health/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">National Public Radio</a>, and <a href="http://in.reuters.com/news/health" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Reuters</a>, as well as <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; "><a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Science</a> </em>and<a href="http://www.nature.com/news/index.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; "> Nature'</em>s</a> news departments, all cover infectious disease pretty well. If you read those, you'll catch most of the big news, though it requires sieving out from other stories. (The<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Guardian</em>'s <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/infectiousdiseases" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">infectious-disease news tag</a> does the sieving for you.)</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">To build your own filters, you can perform specific author/subject-tag searches at those and other publications, then bookmark the self-updating results. I've included such searches in the following links for the<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; "> New York Times</em>' <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/g/denise_grady/index.ctx?match=exact&query=infectious+disease&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=Search" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Denise Grady</a>; <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Nature</em>'s <a href="http://www.nature.com/search/executeSearch?include-collections=journals_nature%2Ccrawled_content&exclude-collections=journals_palgrave%2Clab_animal&sp-c=25&sp-s=date_descending&sp-q-1=NATURE%2CNEWS%2CNNEWSB&sp-q=declan+butler" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Declan Butler</a> and <a href="http://www.nature.com/search/executeSearch?sp-q=brendan+maher&sp-p=all&pag-start=1&sp-c=25&sp-m=0&sp-s=&siteCode=nature&sp-q-9%5BNATURE%5D=1&sp-advanced=true" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Brendan Maher</a>; NBC's <a href="http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_nv/more/section/archive?author=maggie-fox" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Maggie Fox</a>; <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Science</em>'s <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/search?volume=&firstpage=&submit=yes&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=Search&doi=&submit=yes&fulltext=&andorexactfulltext=and&titleabstract=&andorexacttitleabs=and&title=&andorexacttitle=and&author1=cohen%2C+jon&author2=&fmonth=&fyear=&tmonth=&tyear=&hits=10&sortspec=relevance&submit=yes&resourcetype=HWCIT%7CHWELTR&tocsectionid=all&submit=yes" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Jon Cohen</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/search?volume=&firstpage=&submit=yes&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&submit=Search&doi=&submit=yes&fulltext=&andorexactfulltext=and&titleabstract=&andorexacttitleabs=and&title=&andorexacttitle=and&author1=Enserink%2C+Martin&author2=&fmonth=&fyear=&tmonth=&tyear=&hits=10&sortspec=relevance&submit=yes&tocsectionid=all&submit=yes" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Martin Enserink</a>; and the <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Canadian Press</em>'<a href="http://thechronicleherald.ca/author/helen-branswell-canadian-press" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Helen Branswell</a>. All of these journalists do top-flight work. Branswell's reporting, alas, goes criminally overlooked in the United States (except by other health journalists). She focuses with particular intensity on swine, bird, and seasonal flu, navigating their changes, overlaps, and frightening uncertainties with particular grace and foresight; she is my go-to for flu.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Those folks will get you the main goods. Meanwhile, as with many deep but narrow topics in today's media environment, the infectious-disease beat benefits greatly from a handful of blogs, including some written by journalists, that track back stories, side stories, and follow-ups with a detail and steadiness that mainstream media doesn't allow. Two favorite blogs among bad-bug journalists are <a href="http://humanosphere.org/category/health/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Humanosphere Health</a> blog, kept by <a href="http://humanosphere.org/author/tpaulson/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Tom Paulson</a>, and the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/sarahboseley+society/sarah-boseley-global-health" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Guardian</em>Health Blog</a>, written by health editor <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/sarahboseley" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Sarah Boseley</a>.</div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Finally, freelance journalist and blogger Maryn McKenna is unmatched in reporting and contextualizing infectious-disease news with stories that'll scare the antibodies out of you. (She also possesses a <a href="http://marynmckenna.com/audio/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">disturbingly</a><a href="http://marynmckenna.com/audio/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank"> cool radio voice</a>.) The easiest way to follow McKenna is at her blog,<a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/superbug/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Superbug</a>. (Disclosure: She and I both blog for <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Wired</em>.) She repeatedly sees the <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">big</em> in the big stories, from <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/12/coronavirus-four/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">new coronaviruses</a> to the CIA's lethally destructive <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/12/taliban-murder-polio/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">fake-polio-vaccine boondoggle</a>in Pakistan, before almost anyone else does. For a sample, see her <u><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/dengue_fever_in_united_states_breakbone_fever_outbreaks_florida_texas_and.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; "><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-style: italic; ">Slate</em></strong></a></u><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/dengue_fever_in_united_states_breakbone_fever_outbreaks_florida_texas_and.html" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; "> piece on dengue fever</a>. </div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; "><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; ">Global Disease in 140</strong></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 12px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; ">Finally, if you've dumped your RSS reader and newspaper home pages for Twitter, you're in luck, for many of the writers named above use Twitter to link to, curate, and discuss both their own and others' breaking coverage. Particularly sharp are <a href="http://twitter.com/HelenBranswell" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Helen Branswell</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/marynmck" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Maryn McKenna</a>,<a href="http://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Laurie Garrett</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/maggiemfox" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Maggie Fox</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/DavidQuammen" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">David Quammen</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/DeclanButlerNat" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Declan Butler</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/bmahersciwriter" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Brendan Maher</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/ScienceCohen" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Jon Cohen</a>, and<a href="http://twitter.com/MartinEnserink" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Martin Enserink</a>; and last but not least, Michael Coston, who blogs at <a href="http://afludiary.blogspot.com/" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Avian Flu Diary</a> and tweets, indefatigably, as <a href="http://twitter.com/Fla_Medic" style="color: rgb(86, 129, 140); text-decoration: none; " target="_blank">Fla_Medic</a>.</div></div></div><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/pandemics_books_authors_and_tweets_the_best_stories_about_the_worst_diseases.single.html">http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/pandemics_books_authors_and_tweets_the_best_stories_about_the_worst_diseases.single.html</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Pandemics books, authors, and tweets: The best stories about the worst diseases. - Slate Magazine

The germs have been busy. In the United States this year alone, we've lost people both to old enemies such as  whooping cough  and to re...

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