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The SARS outbreak of 2003 terrified millions of people and served as a harbinger of epidemics to come. More recently, outbreaks of a deadly strain of Avian Influenza have also caused alarm, along with the H1N1 Flu. According to history, the world is long overdue for an influenza pandemic, which could easily be as deadly as the 1918 flu that killed at least 50 million people. Journalist Karl Taro Greenfeld was living in Hong Kong when SARS first appeared, just miles from his home. His real-life scientific thriller China Syndrome takes readers on a whirlwind ride from the bedside of one of the first victims, to cutting-edge labs where researchers race to find a vaccine, to World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva as officials desperately try to determine the number and extent of SARS cases, despite the efforts of the Chinese government to conceal data. China Syndrome takes us to the front lines of the SARS and Avian Flu outbreaks and explains how globalization, coupled with rampant development, is ushering in a terrifying new chapter in the history of human health. Karl Taro Greenfeld, the former editor at TIME Asia, is now an editor at large at Sports Illustrated in New York. He is the author of Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan''s Next Generation, and Standard Deviations: Growing Up and Coming Down in the New Asia. ''A compelling writer ... China Syndrome echoes the sort of gritty, breathless thriller pace that Richard Preston employed 10 years ago in The Hot Zone.'' - Washington Post
About the author
Karl Taro Greenfeld is the author of seven previous books, including the novel Triburbia and the acclaimed memoir Boy Alone. His award-winning writing has appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Best American Short Stories 2009 and 2013, and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2012. Born in Kobe, Japan, he has lived in Paris, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, and currently lives in Pacific Palisades, California, with his wife, Silka, and their daughters, Esmee and Lola.
Summary
“China Syndrome is a fast-moving,
truth-is-stranger-than-fiction thriller that doubles as an excellent primer of
emerging infections for scientists and laypeople alike. But that’s not all. For
readers more captivated by world politics than by microbiology, its chief
strength, beyond the superb writing, is a detailed look at China’s culture of
secrecy in the throes of a global public health crisis.” — Los Angeles Times
When
the SARS virus broke out in China in January 2003, Karl Taro Greenfeld was the
editor of Time Asia in Hong
Kong, just a few miles from the epicenter of the outbreak. After vague, initial
reports of terrified Chinese boiling vinegar to "purify" the air, Greenfeld and
his staff soon found themselves immersed in the story of a lifetime.
Deftly
tracking a mysterious viral killer from the bedside of one of the first victims
to China's overwhelmed hospital wards—from cutting-edge labs where researchers
struggle to identify the virus to the war rooms at the World Health
Organization headquarters in Geneva—China
Syndrome takes readers on a gripping ride that blows through the
Chinese government's effort to cover up the disease . . . and sounds a clarion
call warning of a catastrophe to come: a great viral storm potentially more
deadly than any respiratory disease since the influenza of 1918.
