The "Next Big One": A book review of "Spillover" by David Quammen

In just the past week it was announced that US troops in West Africa to combat Ebola will begin leaving the slowly normalizing, but still fraught, nations worst hit by outbreak. Compared with the “worst case” scenarios laid out in the NY Times and by the CDC, the already massive human tragedy could have been 100 times worse. Part and parcel to those apocalyptic scenarios was the spread to, and then within, the US and Europe in metropolitan cities where containment is made arduous. Except for a few isolated cases, this threat did not materialize. Still, 10,000 human lives have been lost and the response was lethargic at best. Had this been a worldwide disease, more easily transmitted and slow to show symptoms, what would we have done? And could we be doing more to prevent, rather than react to, infectious disease?

The Importance of Being Offended

Try to remember being told that Santa Claus is fictional. Up until that point, each year, you had taken seriously the tally of your good deeds in hope of a bigger, better, gift-wrapped reward. But now the spell is broken, there was no fat man squeezing down the chimney with Transformers in tow. You’re furious, face red as a beetroot, at being tricked. Now pair this simple truth, your bald-faced anger in the face of contradiction, with the equally evident truth that you carry around many, many more false ideas at the age of 12 (and to this day) than just Santa’s existence.