The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

A chilling account of the 1918 pandemic with a lot of lessons that can be applied to the situation that we find ourselves in today. This is a book that does get very technical but also has some take-home value for every reader. Barry however took over 100 pages to actually get into the pandemic!I would recommend this book as a must-read for those that are betting that the world will be out of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 (think again!). Great historical account also on the founding of John’s Hopkins Medical School, the role of the Rockefeller Medical Institute and how America came to being at the forefront of medical research.It did give me some satisfaction reading a recent WSJ article on how much the book impacted President George W. Bush and how he began to create the systems needed to handle the next pandemic.

Way, way back in 2005, President George W. Bush read John Barry’s book, a copy of which was given to him by HHS Secretary Leavitt. Came to work a few days later and asked his staff what plans America had for combating the next pandemic. Nada. Bush might not have learned anything from the Vietnam War he strove to miss, when he decided to charge into Iraq, but he SURE seems to have learned something from history, thanks to Barry, and insisted the United States be prepared for the next pandemic. Wags in the West Wing started calling Barry’s book by the subject line, since that is how much the overall plan would cost. Dr. Fauci, just last Sunday, said on “Face the Nation” that he would be “astounded” if there was not an “autopsy” on America’s appalling response to the COVID Pandemic. Certainly, a good starting point would be what happened to the seven-billion-dollar plan.This is such an impressive book and is the one essential book that we all should read, now almost two years into the latest pandemic. The thesaurus of superlatives is quickly exhausted in describing this book. Barry says that it took him seven years to write this. There are 60 pages of references at the end. Few authors have that unique ability to meld the science and the human drama. His style is crisp and lucid.It is one thing to write a biography; Barry did the research for seven to ten. He then distilled that knowledge into concise and lively portraits, with the quirks, rivalries, and warts of the leading medical people who would confront the pandemic. I had heard of none of these individuals, apparently due to my wandering in the wilderness too long. There is William Henry Welsh, the one man who largely transformed how medicine was practiced in America, trying to get the practitioners educated and the snake oil off the shelves. Oswald T. Avery, a private in the Army during WWI, would do brilliant work at the Rockefeller Institute. William Park, Anna Wessel Williams and Rufus Cole made substantial contributions. There is the brilliant and troubled Paul Lewis, whose story may have helped inspire portions of Sinclair Lewis’ (no relation) “Arrowsmith.” Paul Lewis would die in Brazil, in 1929. Barry posits: “And whether his death was a suicide or a true accident, his failure to win what he loved killed him. One could consider Lewis, in a way meaningful to him, the last victim of the 1918 pandemic.”Philadelphia was particularly hard hit by the influenza outbreak. Barry provides an excellent account of all the relevant factors and the role of the Edwin Vare’s political machine, and how, when the “terror” of the flu took hold, the ol’ Blue Bloods, the Wartons, Biddles had to take charge. Wilson was hell-bent on getting the Doughboys over There, to Europe, with devastating effects on military bases in the USA, due in particular to overcrowding. Barry relates what happened at Camp Devin in MA., in detail.With pitch-perfect tone, Barry uses the ironic refrain throughout the book: “It’s just the flu.”As Barry relates, it was not until the late 20’s, that Lewis’ protégé, Richard Shope proved that it was a virus, and not a bacterium that had killed something like 50 million people.The book was originally issued in 2004; Barry did an Afterword in 2018, just before all hell broke loose on what we did NOT learn. In the Afterword, hauntingly, in light of what has transpired, he said:“So, the problems presented by a pandemic are, obviously, immense. But the biggest problem lies in the relationship between governments and the truth…But as horrific as the disease itself was, public officials and the media helped create that terror- not by exaggerating the disease but by minimizing it, by trying to reassure. A specialty among public relations consultants has evolved in recent decades called ‘risk communication’. I don’t much care for the term. For if there is a single dominant lesson from 1918, it’s that governments need to tell the truth in a crisis. Risk communications implies managing the truth. You don’t manage the truth. You tell the truth.” Amen, from that eponymous corner.I live in New Mexico, which, thanks to our Governor, has imposed some of the more restrictive measures to control the spread of the disease and I am all in favor of that. Nonetheless, several of our major hospitals have imposed “crisis standards of care,” a fancy phrase for that dreadful French word: triage. It is required to wear masks indoors, and I do, though I think it only improves my changes of not contracting COVID by 10-20% as compared to no mask. Therefore, I found Barry’s quite dismissive rejection of the efficacy of masks in preventing COVID supportive of my own beliefs. In fact, looks like Barry would consider 10-20% far too generous:“Surgical masks are next to useless except in very limited circumstances, chiefly in the home” (P. 477). “The masks worn by millions were useless as designed and could not prevent influenza. Only preventing exposure to the virus could” (P. 358-59).In my idiosyncratic rating system, for books or movies I really like, I provide a 6-star rating, sometimes adding a “plus” for the truly great ones. For the 7-billion-dollar book that took 7 years to write, and is written so well, on such a complex subject and is so relevant for our lives today, I am providing it my very first 7-star rating.

Libro in inglese. Stupendo! Ci ricorda la storia della scienza medica in ogni singola pagina ed approfondisce gli aspetti sociali della pandemia piu` devastante della storia. Insegna molto

Am Beispiel der weltweiten Epidemie 1918/20 können wir Heutigen alle Fehler und Versäumnisse studieren, die Staat und Verwaltung begehen können. Und teilweise 2020 wieder begehen! Das Buch sollte dringend auf Deutsch erscheinen und allen Coronaleugnern und Querdenkern zur Pflichtlektüre gemacht werde. Auch damals sagte viele, o, bloß eine Grippe! Weltweit waren viele Millionen Tote das Ergebnis. Heute wissen wir zwar mehr, dass es ein Virus ist, haben Impfstoffe, und verhalten uns nicht viel klüger. Händewaschen! Abstand! Isolieren! Impfen!Die Darstellung geht sehr ins Detail, das müsste in einer deutschen Ausgabe nicht sein. Doch ist der Text gut lesbar und das Englisch nicht schwierig.

I bought this one based on Gates Notes recommendations. The book is a great, very detailed and a truly historic account of the medical profession and scientific community in the US. It also provides an accurate account of the 1918-20 Influenza Pandemic and its intertwining with the relevant historic events of those years. It is a bit too detailed and repetitive throughout and somewhat lacks sistematization which would make it easier to follow at times. Nonetheless it is a good book but it is worth to consider if your interest in the subject truly justifies such a detailed, long book.

I heard the author speak on the WHY IS THIS HAPPENING podcast. He was so knowledgable and informative about what we are going through now and what happened in 1918 that I felt I had to get the book to better understand how we will get through the next 2 years.Barry writes a page turner from the prologue onward one cannot put the book down.A must read while in 'locked down'