82 pages • 2 hours read
David QuammenSpillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Quammen opens his book with the story of Hendra virus, despite the fact that it is fairly unknown and has infected relatively few people. What explanation does he offer for this? How does introducing Hendra first assist him in constructing a more coherent narrative, connecting various zoonotic diseases to each other?
How does Quammen’s use of his own journeys as a narrative tool emphasize that human beings are also animals and closely connected to nature?
Fear is a major theme in Quammen’s Ebola chapters, for both ordinary people and experts. How does fear influence Quammen’s protagonists to contain outbreaks and work for a cure?
Quammen eventually adds mathematics to his understanding of zoonosis. Why do we need mathematics to understand disease outbreaks?
How does the SARS outbreak illustrate that modern technology has limited effects on containing outbreaks or making them less dangerous?
Bacterial and viral zoonoses are obviously different from one another on a cellular level. How are the scientific responses to them similar? How are they different?
What is the role of risk in causing or mitigating zoonotic outbreaks?
In Quammen’s accounts, human politics are an important factor in response to outbreaks. Do politics usually aid or hamper scientific progress?
How do Quammen’s mostly fictional characters of the Hunter and the Voyager add to or change your understanding of how spillovers happen?
What are the roles of trust, friendship, and mentorship in helping scientists progress in their understanding of disease?
