Spillover

By: David Quammen

Narrated by: Jonathan Yen

Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

A masterpiece of science reporting that tracks the animal origins of emerging human diseases.

The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia - but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world. He recounts adventures in the field - netting bats in China, trapping monkeys in Bangladesh, stalking gorillas in the Congo - with the world’s leading disease scientists. In Spillover, Quammen takes the listener along on this astonishing quest to learn how, where from, and why these diseases emerge, and he asks the terrifying question: What might the next big one be?

©2012 David Quammen (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

A good book to help one understand the animal/human transmission of disease

I'd never really understood what was meant by "spillover" or the process by which animal diseases jumped to people. If you're interested in knowing how this happens, I think this book would help explain.

true epidemiology book. best recent

the take home for me was in order to prevent spillover is obt6by human actions and behaviors. that we as humans have control.

cut hunter

The cut hunter tangent went on a bit too long, and full of conjecture.

predicting covid-19

this is a well-told story of how things like malaria, influenza and covid-19 can jump from other animals into humans and become a very big problem.

The Modern “Hot Zone”

If you’re also a longtime fan of “The Hot Zone” (or a Hot Zone kid, as Quammen calls us) I’d highly recommend Spillover! It lacks the same graphic descriptions, but makes up for that with details that are terrifying and enlightening in a post-COVID world.

Good story with a few slow moments

A great overview of the history of modern cross-over viruses from animals to humans w/ a smattering of bacteria. Mostly, it's a great read, but there is a section of the history of HIV that gets ridiculously long.

Eerie to Finish

I’m not sure what I should think about this book. Since we are in a pandemic of Covid-19, “Spillover” should be more relevant, but I just got sick to my stomach that we knew that the outbreak was going to happen, but yet we didn’t do anything. David Quammen pretty much had a crystal ball on what exactly was going to happen from our past pandemics. He almost had the exact observations for our future, but yet we dismissed everything.

If I read this book an year ago, it would have taken me no time to finish reading because the information that is presented is so dead on. Reading this during lock down, infections are on a spike, with no vaccine in near future, it felt eerie to finish.

"Never judge a book from its cover"

Back in 2015, I bought the audiobook version of "Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic" by David Quammen (2012). The book had then good reviews but, judging from the cover and jacket blurb after buying it, I mistakenly assumed that it was just one more in the doom-and-gloom science journalism genre, fantasizing about how humankind might destroy itself and the planet. Thus, the book sat unread in my Audible.com library for the following five years.

Then, last Spring, David Quammen and his "prophetic" book were front page news around the world. Chastened, I have finally listened to the audiobook. I enjoyed immensely this well-written, profound and thoroughly researched journalistic report on the evolutionary ecology of modern pandemics, --and I have learned a lot!

For everyone living in the 21st century, and particularly for us in the medical profession, being knowledgeable about the content of this book can be literally life-saving.

As the saying goes, "Don't judge a book by the cover."

I Loved This Book!!!

I know very little about science or biology but I have to say, this book made me want to become a molecular biologist. I've even recommended this book to a few friends. Easy to follow and has some great stories within it's pages. I do feel like the narrator could have put a little more feeling into some of the stories but overall a great book!

Written like a mysrey

I started the book prior to the outbreak of Covid-19 but the timing was perfect. The book is hard to put down because it has the suspense of a mystery story.