Maryn McKennaCritiques

This book tells you everything you ever wanted to know about joining and working for the EIS, which is like the CIA but with biohazards and diseases. The gore is kept to a minimum and the workings of government are kept to a maximum, which means it can get dull at times. The people outlined in this book are described well, but not well enough that I care to follow their particular career path. I was more interested in how the outbreaks were contained, what the particular epidemic did, etc.

I did learn a lot of interesting stats about listeria and SARS. I may never eat cold cuts again.

The content was interesting, but the writing was a little boring. High in human interest, low on science. Of course, it probably suffers because I read 'The Hot Zone' shortly before it. Hard to follow that one.

I have to admit that sometimes I get conscious consumer fatigue and just buy cheap food at the discount grocery. We're all going to die eventually (though it often seems more imminent these days) so what's the difference between a $1.69 chicken breast family pack and the air chilled locally raised butchered on site chicken at $5.99 from the butcher shop? But then I read books like this and have to remind myself, it's not just what I'm eating, it's supply and demand, supporting causes with my money as well as my tweets. Although, to be honest, reading books like this also make me hate capitalism and lobbyists and science-deniers and the fact that money and profit drive everything.

An informative, non-technical book about MRSA. Scarey. The author should have added more technical information and statistics, but otherwise interesting reading.

Fascinating. I would definitely appreciate any recs for similar books (especially if UK or Europe-based rather than American).

This is a book about the Epidemic Intelligence Service, the "disease detective corps" of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For three weeks, Ph.D.s, nurses, doctors, veterinarians, dentists, and even lawyers are trained in epidemiology and public health. They are put through a rigorous class schedule, frightening simulations, and even yanked out of classes to deal with disease outbreaks. Once they are fully trained, they spend two years working where-ever they are needed. Their work is multi-pronged: they go door-to-door, interviewing every contact of an infected person; they use molecular biology to pin down which cases of a disease are involved in an outbreak; they reassure the public. Sometimes they are assigned to work in a state, coordinating and investigating. But with only days or even hours notice, members of the EIS fly into war-torn countries to work with refugees, into politically charged anthrax investigations, to Listeria outbreaks afflicting a trailer park. They must be prepared for any situation.

This is a very exciting book! McKenna splits the chapters between the culture and training of the EIS (they have to wear full military uniform every Wednesday, for instance), and their investigation of disease outbreaks. Both are fascinating, but hampered because McKenna insists on writing a full paragraph about the family and professional life of every person mentioned, no matter how tangential. A better book would have focused on a few people, or cut out the sentences about their build and how many children they have.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in public health.

I was fascinated with this book, and sped right through it despite other calls upon my time. I was familiar with the CDC, but was not as familiar with the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIC) that formed the focus of the book. The details of their various outbreaks made for great reading.

Scary and informative. All health care workers should read this.