reads like a murder mystery or thriller. ( )

A good account of the history of the 1918 worldwide influenza epidemic which was forgotten about for many years, perhaps because of the psychological impact on the survivors, coming as it did in the final phases of a terrible dragged-out war. The book includes firsthand accounts of the harrowing symptoms and mass deaths of, in the main, young healthy people. It then goes on to recount a short history of the discovery of viruses and how they operate, and the various individuals who have investigated them and tried to find preserved specimens of the 1918 virus to develop a vaccine against the threat of its return.

The book does flag a bit in the middle when it gets bogged down in the details of lawsuits and insurance claims arising from the 1976 mass vaccination programme in the USA, but on the whole it is a good account of the difficulties of combating the constantly variable influenza virus and the dilemma facing health care professionals and governmental officials: whether or not to vaccinate the population when a virus breaks out that looks serious - because it could turn out to be a false alarm costing a huge amount and risking side effects, but if you don't, it could be the return of a killer flu. The book does make clear what a no win situation this is. In summary, it is a good account of the 'forgotten epidemic' and the ongoing background threat of influenza. ( )

Very readable and interesting account of the work of virus “detectives.” ( )

A fascinating story about the quest to find and decode the 1918 influenza virus. It's a bit outdated now, thanks to advances in science, but still a good and informative read. I only had two complaints: I wished for footnotes, rather than the endnotes that weren't easy to reference without superscript numbers, and I wished Kolata's telling was more of a timeline rather than individual's stories. The first is rather minor, but the second would have made it easier to keep track of the narrative and just when certain events happened. ( )

This isn’t really the story of the pandemic itself. There’s really only a chapter or two that goes into that. It’s mainly about the scientists trying to figure out what exact type of flu it was. Interesting, but not as interesting as it could have been. ( )