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As a history of public health institutions and medical education in this country, this book is ok and fairly interesting, but as a treatise on epidemiology, it certainly left me feeling disappointed and confused. I guess I was hoping for an exciting medical detective story ala Berton Rouche. I have a great personal interest in the 1918 flu epidemic and this book did not much enhance my knowlege of microbiology or infectious disease, leaving me with more questions than answers. Perhaps Gina Kolat
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Holy crap! This was easily one of the scariest books I've ever read, but I couldn't put it down. Barry tells the story of the flu pandemic (in all its gory detail), but also the development of scientific medicine in the United States, some history of the sciences of public health and epidemiology, and a great deal of the political and military background of the world during WWI. I think that everyone should read this. We can learn a lot from the policy faliures during the 1918 flu and apply them
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This is a wonderful overview of the biggest pandemic of the 20th century. It first shows how medicine in the US had just started being modernized before the 1918 flu started, who the big men of science and medicine were, and how they approached this disease that killed in such numbers. It also shows how World War I influenced the spread of the pandemic and the public's knowledge of what the disease was doing outside their community. The book also made me question how our modern medicine would be
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I would not recommend this book unless you suffer from insomnia and have great tolerance for confusing digressions, unsubstantiated generalizations and lots of repetition. Where was the editor on this one?
In light of what is going on in the world today, this book is chilling. The afterward is prophetic, and yet not headed in 2020. So crazy.
Sep 13, 2009
Deron Granville
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Sep 23, 2009
Kenzo
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Dec 19, 2010
Nea
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Apr 11, 2011
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Nov 29, 2011
fr0zen
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Feb 22, 2013
Nydia “Cookie”
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May 23, 2013
Grace
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Aug 14, 2017
Sally
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Dec 14, 2018
Navi
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Feb 22, 2020
Michael Harry
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Mar 09, 2020
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Apr 20, 2020
Barb
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