When Things Go Wrong: Diseases from The Body

by Bill Bryson

In this selection from The Body, Bill Bryson introduces us to the mysterious, and often devastating, world of disease.

Genres: Nonfiction, Medicine, Science, Health, History

28 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 21, 2020

About the author

Bill Bryson is a bestselling American-British author known for his witty and accessible nonfiction books spanning travel, science, and language. He rose to prominence with Notes from a Small Island (1995), an affectionate portrait of Britain, and solidified his global reputation with A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003), a popular science book that won the Aventis and Descartes Prizes. Raised in Iowa, Bryson lived most of his adult life in the UK, working as a journalist before turning to writing full-time. His other notable works include A Walk in the Woods, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, and The Mother Tongue. Bryson served as Chancellor of Durham University (2005–2011) and received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including an honorary OBE and election as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. Though he announced his retirement from writing in 2020, he remains one of the most beloved voices in contemporary nonfiction, with over 16 million books sold worldwide.

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very short book. It feels like something put together by the publisher to make money, excerpts from The Body: A Guide for Occupants. I don't know if it is or not, I only read a few pages of The Body and it didn't grab me. I used to like Bryson's avuncular style a lot more than I do now. Got weary of it. That's me, not him).

If the book had been longer, more detailed and less pop science I might have rated it higher. As it is 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 because one mustn't be churlish in the holiday season.
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Notes on reading "Whether or not a disease becomes epidemic is dependent on four factors: how lethal it is, how good it is at finding new victims, how easy or difficult it is to contain, and how susceptible it is to vaccines. Most really scary diseases are not actually very good at all four."

Covid-19 is lethal, finds new victims easily, containment is proving either ineffective or effective but is devastating and there isn't any vaccine so it didn't stop at epidemic, it became a pandemic.

Apposite reading for the times.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very short section of Bryson's larger work, The Body. This essay discusses some history of diseases and their spreadability. i.e. what's the difference between infections and contagious. There is a difference. Bryson specifically looks at diseases like typhoid, typhus, smallpox, and tuberculosis, and calls out some little known viruses that could have a major impact should they ever become widespread.

Bryson also discusses the flu vaccine, what's in it, and why it has such a low-efficiency rate. We've been really lucky so far not to have so many pandemics in our lifetime. There are more to come.

[Nandeep Shah]

A quick read on the history and the presistence of viruses. Gives a brief history of what other virus have affected us and how others will , its just a matter of time.

[Habib Hassan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

[Pinar G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kısa kısa ölümcül virüsler anlatılmış ve bitişinde de neden bu güne kadar grip virüsü dünyayı sarmamış sorusuna We were lucky denmiş. Pandemi ortalığı kavururken çıkan bir sondan grlim kitabı.

[Phat Ho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quyển sách này thực chất là một chương trong quyển The body của chính tác giả, có lẽ được tách ra thành một quyển riêng để phục vụ độc giả dịp COVID-19 này. Tuy nhiên, vì sách này được viết trước khi dịch xuất hiện, nên chắc chắn sẽ không đề cập COVID-19 đâu nhé. Sách viết khá ngắn gọn, ngôn ngữ đơn giản, mọi người đều có thể đọc hiểu được. Tên sách là “diseases” nhưng mình thấy tác giả nói về bệnh truyền nhiễm (infectious diseases) là chủ yếu, và bối cảnh dịch bệnh xảy ra lần đầu. Đọc xong sẽ giúp ta hiểu một cách khái quát toàn cảnh của bệnh truyền nhiễm theo dòng lịch sử.


Sách gồm ba phần:
Phần một đề cập nhiều về một số vụ dịch lớn trong lịch sử như Akureyri disease, West Nile virus, Picardy sweats, Elizabethkingia, Tularemia, Bourbon virus, Legionella,…

A disease becomes epidemic is dependent on four factors
- How lethal it is
- How good it is at finding new victims
- How easy/difficult it is to contain
- How susceptible it is to vaccines

Tuy nhiên một số bệnh nguy hiểm cũng không hề có đầy đủ bốn yếu tố này.

Phần hai bàn luận xoay quanh quan điếm

“the worst health initiative in history was the invention of agriculture”.

Trong phần này, mình biết được thêm câu chuyện phía sau hai dịch bệnh typhoid (do samonella) và typhus (do rickettsia), cũng khá ấn tượng với câu chuyện đầy drama của Mary Mallon. Ngoài ra, tác giả còn đề cập đến hai dịch bệnh smallpox (đậu mùa – variola virus) và chickenpox (thủy đậu-varicella zoster virus), đặc biệt là smallpox, một dịch bệnh đã được công bố biến mất khỏi toàn cầu nên ít xuất hiện trong sách vở bệnh học hiện đại, cùng bi kịch của hai người Janet Parker và Henry Bedson - một chuyên gia virus, nạn nhân cuối cùng của căn bệnh này.
Sau khi đậu mùa qua đi là thời đại của vi khuẩn lao hoành hành, mình biết thêm thuật ngữ mới, “spes phthisica”, triệu chứng cận kề cái chết ở bệnh nhân lao. Ngoài ra sách cũng đề cập đến “bubonic plague” hay được mọi người biết đến nhiều hơn với “black death” (bệnh dịch hạch). Tác giả cũng dành sự biết ơn to lớn khi nói về những nhà khoa học đã tìm ra tác nhân gây bệnh, như Taylor Ricketts (tìm ra rickettsia), Jesse Laxear chứng minh bệnh sốt vàng lây lan bởi muỗi.

Phần cuối nói về hai nhóm bệnh nổi lên ở hiện tại, bệnh về di truyền, và bệnh mạn tính liên quan đến lối sống tĩnh tại.

Liên quan đến các bệnh mạn tính liên quan lối sống hiện đại, một câu mình khá ấn tượng:

“Medical care is actually making things worse by treating the symptoms of mismatch diseases so effectively that we “unwittingly perpetuate their causes”

Ngoài ra, nhờ sách mình mới biết infectious disease và contagious disease tuy vẫn thường được sử dụng lẫn lộn nhưng lại là hai từ khác nhau, trong đó “a infectious disease is one caused by a microbe, a contagious disease is one transmitted by contact”.

[Fidan Fatulla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy and quick to read, short history of diseases, facts about them makes it interesting. Liked the last part about flu.
“The fact is,” he says, “we are really no better prepared for a bad outbreak today than we were when Spanish flu killed tens of millions of people a “hundred years ago. The reason we haven’t had another experience like that isn’t because we have been especially vigilant. It’s because we have been lucky.”
It seems we aren’t lucky anymore.

[Word Muncher · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's scary how weak humans are and how they are getting weaker still, but their focus is on wealth and consumerism. There are implications of disease all around us and we need to be better prepared to avoid most of the illnesses we bring on ourselves. The most dangerous? Flu. And that is what we take for granted the most. We all need to learn how diseases work and we all need to teach each other. Put aside your egos. Get vaccinated and get wise.

[Yogi Saputro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coming from STEM degree, I can say that Bill is effective storyteller and able to maintain relevant accuracy. Props to that.

As for the book itself, it's nice and informative. But it doesn't go further. So, 3 stars.

[Ericka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for 2020. While it doesn't directly discuss Covid-19 it does explain why we should be concerned and active against it. You may never look at illnesses the same!

[Diane Winger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a much shorter excerpt from The Body than I had expected. It was interesting, and piqued my interest in the full book, but I was disappointed at how little it covered.

[Kimberly Sabatini · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so timely and informative I wanted more.

[Varshini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chillingly prescient.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Picked this excerpt up for 99c to see if I would enjoy books by Mr. Bryson. I will definitely be reading more by him. Informative and interesting, well-written.

[Dave N'renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

quick read

Among other things, I learned to pronounce diphtheria correctly! Some interesting info about current world diseases that we don’t think about much here in the US.

[Nicole Cleaveland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting short read about different diseases. This book is perfect for those in the Healthcare field or just interesting in medical books.

[janis louthis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting

I certainly found this to be an interesting read. Of course, so far, everything that I have read by Mr Bryson has been very interesting to me. I think people like he and I find many unusual things interesting. I love reading science books and that’s what this book is. It answered many questions for me, some that I didn’t even know that I questioned! He provides many facts about diseases in this book. Perhaps I enjoy mysteries has something to do with my enjoyment of this book.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick and informative read.

Concise and fascinating. Bryson's short book puts the relationship between diseases and humans in perspective. It made me want to read more on the subject.

[Tara Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every informative especially today!

Very informative especially today. All of this is important during the pandemic. Bill Bryson makes anything readable. I recommend this book to everyone.

[Sriram Gopalan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and typical Bryson

In his inimitable style that is very readable and informative simultaneously, Bryson gives an overview of diseases that currently afflict us. Most of the content is about germ-based diseases.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative

I would recommend this book to anyone who cares about staying disease free. It explains the common misconceptions and offers reasonable projections.

[mark fredericks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a book

This was more of an article or essay. I've read cocktail napkins with more content. If Bryson had written a forward, it would have doubled the size of this book.

[Dr. Steven Lysne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Odd that it was so short but customarily high quality Bryson.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

waste of money

There’s nothing in this book. It’s like a pamphlet with minimal medical information. I don’t know how they can even sell it.