Pathogenic passengers

摘要

Pandemic disease is a world traveller. This simple fact underlies much of the work of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (GVFI), an organization established and run by microbiologist Nathan Wolfe, which aims to predict and prevent disease pandemics. So it is apt that I read Wolfe's The Viral Storm on a crowded airliner bound for Beijing, and fortunate that the book was sufficiently diverting to keep me awake for 13 hours. It is an excellent piece of scientific gothic, rich in descriptions of the threat we face from emerging viruses and how we might prevent them from becoming pandemic.