5000 Years of Plagues: A Brief History of Epidemics

Plagues are not ancient history, and they are not rare. Malaria ravaged the American South until 1952, and Polio infected 90,000 Americans in 1953. Sixteen epidemics occurred from 2010 to 2020. We wait for influenza every fall, hoping that it has not mutated into a more lethal form. In 2019 COVID erupted worldwide. At least 1,400 microorganisms infect humans. As if that were not enough, 320,000 viruses infect animals, and one of those could cross to our species at any time. This book puts epidemics in perspective.