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Pandemics
- Our Fears and the Facts
- Narrated by: Jones Allen
- Length: 1 hr and 2 mins
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Pandemics
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Summary
History books abound with accounts of large scale destruction wrought by infectious disease. As recently as 1918, a pandemic of influenza claimed over 50 million lives worldwide. The advent of drugs and vaccines led to an era of hope when we thought our battles with infectious disease were won, but our optimism has been eroded by the recognition that many pathogens have the capacity to transform themselves and escape our efforts to eradicate them. Are we now facing an inevitable repeat of a calamity such as the 1918 influenza pandemic or the Black Death? Can we anticipate and thwart such an event, or are we willfully creating the conditions that would promote the emergence of new and highly virulent human infectious disease?
Sunetra Gupta is Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford specializing in infectious diseases. She holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from the University of London. She has been awarded the Scientific Medal by the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award for her scientific research. She is also a novelist whose books have been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Southern Arts Literature Prize, shortlisted for the Crossword Award, and long-listed for the DSC and Orange Prizes.
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Editor reviews
The word pandemic is bound to set off triggers of fear and anxiety in most people. Our movies and nightly news reports are filled with hyperbolic and sensationalized versions of viruses and bacterial infections. In Pandemics: Our Fears and the Facts, Dr. Sunetra Gupta takes a critical look at our planet’s history of widespread disease and the potentiality of new attacks. Performed with the serious yet assuring voice from veteran Jones Allen, this audiobook is a valuable resource for those looking to cut through all of the nonsense and get an honest and careful examination of infectious diseases.
What listeners say about Pandemics
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. M. R. MOORE
- 29-01-22
Masterfully written and presented
This work manages to integrate colourful imagery and metaphor into a narrative that is scientifically informative and, at times, humorous and diverting by putting human touches into it. Being a layman I found the notion that viruses have a wardrobe of clothes, some extended but some not, and by opportunistically getting changed into a new garment they can elude recognition by the guarding mechanisms.
I recommend this work to the layman who needs an historical background to germ theory and the current Covid calamity.
The tone of the narration is excellent.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sophie
- 01-06-22
Interesting learning but awful narration
I found my thoughts drifting frequently with the monotonous tone of the reader. Painful listening which is a shame as interesting material, if a little basic,
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 07-07-22
Interesting but too short.
Very interesting but needed to be longer. It had great potential but seemed to be cut short. There was so much more that could have been explored & explained. Hope there’s a follow-on!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J. Leigh
- 06-05-21
Excellent
Excellent short overview of pandemics which aligns with arguments put forward by Gupta et al in Great Barrington Declaration and elsewhere, that is, the fear of pandemics from 'new' respiratory pathogens should not distract us from huge annual mortality caused by endemic diseases in developing world (e.g., TB, malaria, diarrhoeal diseases, etc).
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Emily C.
- 23-01-22
Excellent book
I really enjoyed this book. Professor Gupta spells out her case clearly and convincingly.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- H. OC
- 29-08-17
Very basic introduction to infectious diseases
This short read provides a very basic introduction to the topic of infectious diseases. If you have no prior knowledge of the topic, then it would be a good place to start. If, however, you have an established interest or any prior knowledge of the subject, then it is going to be far too basic.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Captain Pugwash
- 07-02-22
Good overview of the subject. Needs updating.
Good overview of the subject. Needs updating, as written in 2013. Very good narration. Dropped one star, as desperately needs updating, to cover SARS-COV2.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Goronwy-Wyn
- 01-12-21
Doomed to be out of date.
An interesting listen but sadly as is the nature of the beast books like this are out of date quickly but interesting nevertheless.
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