Pros: Lots of good information, frightening prospects
Cons: too much vitriolic at times
The Bottom Line: The implications of this book are frightening, but the author's tone damages its message - a better read is "The Coming Plague" by Laurie Garrett.
martytdx's Full Review: Madeline Drexler - Secret Agents: The Menace of Em...
As a guy with a degree of biochemistry who minored in microbiology, the books about the subject of germs, microbiology and immunology and even epidemiology strike a chord. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but for me, I find it good reading. In the past, I've seen the gamut of books regarding the subject.
First came "The Hot Zone". Then came a series of thrillers in a similar vein, as well as other renowned scientists such as C.J. Peters with their own voices. Then, what I consider the granddaddy of these books, Laurie Garrett's "The Coming Plague". And after the attacks of 2001, the subject of biological entities has really taken hold.
As a whole, the non-fiction has out-shined the fiction - perhaps because the truth is that much more frightening. I tend to check out both sides, hoping to find good informative texts about the field. Some have failed (Deadly Medical Mysteries: How They Were Solved by Dian Dincin Buchman) and others have been good (The Hot Zone, The Coming Plague). Many others, while interesting, don't leave me wanting to offer glowing praise - such is the case with Madeline Dresler's Secret Agents.
[ • of germs AND MEN • ]
Of all the species on Earth, bacteria are estimated to make up a large percentage of them (past and present). They were around long before humans arrived on the scene, and will outlast our race. Despite their diminutive size (up to a million can fit on the space of a period), they can lay waste to an entire species or provide a host the tools to adapt to their environment (think: intestinal fauna).
In the last century or so, human understanding of these microbes has blossomed - we learned to find, identify and even grow them - and how to kill them. In quick succession, man discovered these cellular factory organisms, learned how they operate, and identified beneficial and harmful species and learned how naturally-occurring soil fungi could provide us a defense against them. but what we didn't learn in time - and in many cases still haven't learned - is that these fragile cellular creatures are learning to fight back - and they're doing so much faster than we're finding ways to hold them at bay.
Drexler takes on this premise by looking at how new, emerging infections are finding their way into human existence and how old nemesis bugs - long held low by use of antibiotics and methods are making a major resurgence. The book is separated into 8 chapters:
1. Disease in Disguise
2. Winged Victims
3. Food Fight
4. Super Bugs
5. The Once and Future Pandemic
6. Infection Unmasked
7. Bioterror
8. Think Locally, Act Globally
The first chapter talks about how many times disease is hidden from us - sometimes because it's something new and sometimes - such as with West Nile Virus - because we didn't think to look for it where it showed up. 'Winged Victims' talks about transmission vectors (such as mosquitoes), while 'Food Fight' speaks to how our food supply is becoming an increasingly common source of outbreaks.
In 'Super Bugs', Drexler tells us of how certain bacteria are developing more complex and frightening resistance to our normal methods of fighting them, leaving us with fewer and fewer options - mostly because of our won practices. In 'The Once and Future Pandemic' we learn about researches trying to determine while the Influenza Pandemic of the early 1900's was so deadly - and how we might be able to defeat, or at least detect, a re-occurrence. 'Infection Unmasked' tells how researchers go about detecting new infections, while 'Bioterror' takes the opposite problem - how we can battle those who want to use microbes against us. And she ends with 'Think Locally, Act Globally', in which she talks about how infection is becoming a more global situation - and a look into some possible future implications.
[ • expert AND CRITIC •]
There's no doubt that Ms. Drexler knows her stuff - she won the 1992 International Biomedical Journalism prize from the GM Cancer Research Foundation, was a 96-97 Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT, and a former medical columnist for the Boston Globe magazine. She now works as a freelance science and medical journalist in Boston. So the text is written with authority and good sense. And she's a good writer pulling the readers into the subject, which can be considered dry or alarmist in equal amounts. Where she avoids being dry, however, she sometimes fails at reining in the alarmist side of things. Or rather, the "world is coming to an end" tone she takes does.
While the book started well, I quickly found her to be a bit too through at times, restating the same statistics and ideas again and again. There's value to restating your thesis later in the chapter, but her need to restate it multiple times was trying at times. Worse, however, is her way of delivering the message she's trying to convey. I enjoyed the way she presented history and facts of the past, as well as her documentary style with the current state of things. But this is where her writing breaks down - obviously intent on delivering the message of a pending threat, her tone and repetitious statements evoke an accusatory style reminiscent of a PETA campaign poster rather than a book on a pending threat. His advocacy - or agenda - at times comes across so thickly it crowds out the underlying issues and facts she uses.
That isn't to say that her statistics and message aren't frightening; on the contrary, that message is horrifying when you know what the facts are. But being force fed a propaganda-style lecture degrades the message, having it happen repeatedly becomes irritating as well. Laurie Garrett did a much better job at conveying the seriousness and keeping a documentary-thriller style without becoming overly a diatribe.
The book was published originally in 2002, shortly after the events of 2001 and subsequent anthrax attacks. While some of her references and theories are somewhat dated by this, the overall content remains topical, valid and interesting. An afterward added to the paperback version in 2003 addresses more recent incidents, and the anthrax attacks after 9/11. She writes that the threats haven't declined since she wrote the book - in fact, they've grown worse. She concludes that as long as we continue down our current path, we are doomed to see more - and frequent - outbreaks and danger. Eventually, we may find ourselves facing a threat that we can't fight. Is she right? Are we creating the super bug that can wipe us out?
[ • the final GASP • ]
While her style and diatribe-like writing sometimes grew wearisome, the facts - and threats - in the book are all too true. Not only are there a lot of scary things out there lurking in the microbial corners, waiting to make their appearance more frequent and lethal. From the overuse of antibiotics in the animals we eat to the new and exotic diseases appearing far away from their traditional reservoirs, modern man is facing a threat that can overwhelm us, especially if we aren't careful.
The book is alarmist, but perhaps that alarm is needed to cut through the ignorance, the denial and the red tape before it's too late. I just wish that she had been a little better at doing it.
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