Jeremy Farrar
Author of Spike: The Virus v The People - the inside story
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Works by Jeremy Farrar
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The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity from Antiquity to the Present (1998) — Introduction, some editions — 842 copies
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- Works
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- Rating
- 4.1
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- 7
Spike details the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, from the first mutterings about a new virus to lockdowns, overcapacity healthcare and tens of thousands of deaths. It’s told from Jeremy Farrar’s perspective as an expert on infectious disease and practical knowledge on epidemics. He was also a member of the UK SAGE committee on COVID-19, advising the government. It starts as the virus is contained to Wuhan, then slowly spreads before exponential growth across the world. It’s a unique insight as Farrar’s informal talks with colleagues and other experts combine with the advice offered to the UK government on how to manage the pandemic. The warnings about hospitals being overloaded and hundreds of thousands of excess deaths are still chilling to read, as are the thoughts about a virus made by humans (which turned out to be false, but there are some very gripping, spy-like moments).
As the book goes on, I found that this was not simply another pandemic book. It’s a book about power, who holds it and what they do with that power. We talk about leadership and leaders in their respective fields, but what happens when other leaders don’t listen to the expert leaders? What happens when recommendations are changed, ignored or delayed? It seemed at times that science and data were being neglected for the economy, for freedom and perhaps politics. Sometimes it seemed like nobody was willing to take the lead and carry the responsibility of implementing closure of schools, pubs and shops. Of course this is only one side of the story, but there are various email excerpts and others who verify what happened. This was frankly scary to me (and a little too familiar at times from across the world…’gold standard’ anyone from Australia?)
One thing I really liked about this book is that it had a who’s who list at the back, as when you don’t know all the people involved it can be quite confusing to follow. The first chapters were very engrossing even though I knew what the unknowns were, it almost read like a thriller novel. It’s easy to understand and chilling reading at times thinking about the responsibilities experts and public figures have and how that gets conveyed to the general public.
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