Diseases and Pandemics

Books that shed light on the genesis of the COVID-19 pandemic include the works of Pulitzer Prize-winning US science writer Laurie Garrett. Betrayal of Trust: the Collapse of Global Public Health documents the recent decades of systemic dismantling of public health institutions at all levels of the US government. The Coming Plague looks at common patterns underlying newly discovered infectious diseases around the world. Spillover by the noted US science writer David Quammen examines the events surrounding the transfer of diseases from their original animal hosts to human beings.

In the LT Pro and Con group, there is an energetic ongoing discussion of investigations by the global press and scientific groups of the causes, manifestations, and potential treatment options for COVID-19. Go for it. My own focus here is on the key books and a few magazines (The Economist) that dig deeply into the causes, impacts, and emerging trends of global diseases and pandemics which influence or threaten sustainability. I have a master's degree in public health from UCLA, plus work experience in health care.

Over the years I added new titles to our Zeitgeist thread, several people complained about my tight focus on plant-based diets in our list of new cookbooks. Starting in the fall of 2019 in China and since then, however, many doctors have reported that blood test results for COVID-19 patients with one or more chronic health conditions (pre-existing heart or lung disease and obesity are common examples) are key indicators that those patients will have the fight of their lives against the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of COVID-19. Observing the popularity in recent years of diet trends like Paleo, Jane Brody of the NYTimes wrote a withering critique of Paleo diet assumptions, which don't at all hold up to detailed analysis. I have never recommended Paleo cookbooks because that lifestyle is not sustainable, and there's no solid evidence that it offers any medical advantages for a longer lifespan or anything else. I also take a very hard look at cookbooks written by authors who are either obese or on the verge of morbid obesity.

Future recommended books in our Zeitgeist thread will include a few new titles on pandemics and related subjects.

Here is an essay from a US medical doctor. I have pre-ordered his book on pandemics, but it's not in print yet. Time will tell. For now, the essay:

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-prevent-the-next-pandemic/

Scroll down that page an inch or so to click on the "transcript" option, if you prefer to read it rather than watch the video.

Any list of books on the subject of pandemics should include Arrowsmith, by Sinclair Lewis. The current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) contains a medical review of that novel:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2767891

A new online picture book about how animals started moving through empty human spaces during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns:

https://medium.com/@bsp808/when-we-stayed-home-47032a6a2757

Writers (such as Deepak Chopra, MD, and many others) have started to suggest that diseases and especially pandemics will continue until humanity learns to retreat from enough currently human-occupied spaces on Earth to allow a minimum balance to be restored between our planet's other species and ourselves.

Having said that, less than 24 hours ago, I asked the STATNEWS website to begin reporting on COVID-19 saliva tests, some of which qualify as instant results tests, a quantum improvement over the range of COVID-19 tests currently available in most countries. Here is their response:

https://www.statnews.com/2020/08/15/fda-clears-saliva-test-for-covid-19-opening-...

December 2020: The history of one of the most prominent (yet deeply flawed) US pandemic statistical models is explained:

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/gates-covid-data-ihme/

The following published article presents an appeal for a much deeper public analysis of industrial agriculture to begin. That analysis has actually begun before 2020, but is given its main impetus by COVID-19. COVID is the current pandemic, but there will be others if Earth's agricultural usage and much greater conservation of Earth's wildlands and their interfaces with civilization do not change in the near future.

Note: Over the last 20 years, the US vegan population has held steady at 1%. As of December 2020, however, US vegans are 3% of the US population.

Here is the article: https://news.trust.org/item/20201208120326-h7jia