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traegeryyc t1_j8wyy3t wrote

The Hot Zone was an excellent book about the emergence of these viruses, especially marburg.

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ConspiracyPhD t1_j8xuz1e wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,845,831)

That's not the reason. The infectious period is actually quite long. And average time to death from onset of disease is around 8-9 days. Initial symptoms aren't all that severe and often just mimic cold/flu fever and chills and last around 5 days before more severe symptoms appear. People are infectious from the onset of symptoms. A person remains infectious even after they die for a period of time as well.

The reason they don't go pandemic is because they aren't airborne. They require close contact with bodily fluids of an infected individual. The current outbreak in Equatorial Guinea is epidemiologically linked to funeral traditions where the body is washed by relatives before burial pretty much assuring direct contact with bodily fluids.

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Technicolor_Reindeer t1_j8y5es2 wrote

Remember when we looked down on people in Ebola affected countries for attacking medical personnel? Yeah we owe them an apology, at least they didn't have actual politicians trying to criminalize giving vaccines. I bet we could have an ebola/marbug outbreak and the same crowd of morons would be screaming about Arby's being closed.

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antichain t1_j8y8jfq wrote

Replying to traegeryyc (#1,844,257)

The Hot Zone was widely panned by virologists for fear-mongering and exaggerating the terror and grossness of Ebola.

It was critiqued in David Quamen's excellent book Spillover, which is a much more scientifically informed discussion of zoonotic viruses and how they spillover.

Read that, not The Hot Zone.

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traegeryyc t1_j8y95sx wrote

Replying to antichain (#1,847,896)

Spillover didnt act as a catalyst to create billions in funding for vaccine research on hemorrhagic fevers, but Hot Zone did. Not to mention the incredible attention it brought to the conditions in that part of the world.

Nobody gives a shit about it being too gross for virologists as a piece of literature or tv or movies. The 2 latter of which, the other book has none to their credit.

Like a moth to a flame. There is always one guy who sees this title and has to make this asinine comment.

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cwn01 t1_j8y9e5d wrote

Can't read the Washington Post article without giving personal data (email address).

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antichain t1_j8y9vpe wrote

Replying to traegeryyc (#1,847,949)

Nothing that you said makes it an "excellent" book. It may have had a positive impact, but that's largely independent of the quality of the book - a lot of what is in The Hot Zone is just straight-up factually incorrect. In a work of scientific nonfiction, that's pretty much a disqualifier in my mind.

In fact, you could argue that it is the poor qualities of the book that prompted the billions of funding (since exaggerated fear-mongering makes a larger impact than measured, conservative science).

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traegeryyc t1_j8yaone wrote

Replying to antichain (#1,848,016)

Ironically many of those same virologists that "widely panned" the book, benefitted greatly from the grants it made available to them.

I think you are more upset than they are.

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antichain t1_j8yb5e0 wrote

Replying to traegeryyc (#1,848,093)

I just think that if people are looking for a popular science book to read about zoonotic spillover, they would probably get more out of Spillover than the Hot Zone, since it's a more scientifically informed book.

Idk why you're stanning so hard for The Hot Zone - it's not super crazy that as time goes on, science advances, and more recent books improve on earlier ones.

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antichain t1_j8yctap wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,848,191)

So...you just don't like it when you don't get uniform adulation and upvotes? Presenting even the mildest challenge (informed by scientists who work in the field) is enough to trigger ad-hominem attacks like "shitstain."

That seems kind of silly and fragile, imo.

The Martian doesn't present itself as nonfiction. The Hot Zone does.

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traegeryyc t1_j8ydk2s wrote

Replying to antichain (#1,848,301)

I dunno. I recently split open my leg. From my POV, it was a gushing disaster, and that's how I wrote it down. The emerg physician saw it as 3 stitches in his overworked world.

I got the book deal, he is still on 36h shifts.

Mine was a true account. The doctor's was far too non-graphic to truly explain the situation and emotions.

And to be clear. I am not discounting your book nor promoting the one I mentioned. I am just tired of Hot Zone Haters seeing a notification in their feed and coming and shitting on the book.

Its so predictable. Your book was written by a travel blogger .

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