Read: Epidemic

This was a great f^%$%^% book, but not in the traditional elegant way of an English novel or book of poetry. This book read like a spy novel only it was all too real, documenting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa between 2014-2016.

I love books like this because often times the modern media gets these stories wrong, or partially wrong, or they try to hype things up. I always tell people if they have interest in a particular story, “Wait for the book.” And if you are the, sorry, the pathetically minded type who gets their news from Social Media then I don’t seem much hope for you anyway. You are the problem not the solution.

But back to the book. I’ve been fascinated by the story of pathogens for a long, long while, going much further back than my contraction of Lyme Disease, another Zoonosis bug that we have no cure for. There are parallels with Lyme and Ebola, outside of the transmission process, namely how the disease can haunt survivors for years after they are technically “recovered.” (I can speak first hand to this. I call it “the shadow.”) Personally, I think we are all going to come face to face with a global pandemic in the very near future. We’ve danced with the devil many times in recent years.

Epidemic, Ebola and the Global Scramble to Prevent the Next Killer Outbreak,” by Reid Wilson is a great resource, and a great story about a truly horrific event.

In short, the world was unprepared, but the scope and severity of the outbreak forced an unparalleled global response. In some ways we had no choice. West Africa seems remote, but with direct flights to Nigeria, Europe, etc.it isn’t nearly as remote as we think.

As many of you know, this virus spread with great speed, and eventually landed cases of Ebola on American soil. Personally, I remember with great clarity those helicopter shots of the hospital in Dallas where the infected patient and healthcare workers were. Boom. Sobering to say the least.

I won’t get into the minutia here, but if you have interest in this story then get your grubby little hands on a copy of this. And also note that there is ANOTHER Ebola outbreak happening right now in the DRC, and just know we still aren’t prepared for a global outbreak.