Personally, of this thesis, I am only fascinated by the glimpse of a part of human responsibility in the emergency of the disease. The thesis that the virus was produced in a Chinese laboratory or by the Americans, perhaps in an attempt to find a vaccine against HIV, is widely circulating and is continuing to do so. To tell the truth, not everyone is convinced that Covid-19 is an animal virus. And also because Quammen seems to have predicted with certain accuracy everything that is happening these days. Covid-19 has brought the concept of spillover to peoples’ minds: the passage of a pathogen from one species to another, and with it the concept of zoonosis. Spillover reads like a mystery tale, full of mayhem and clues and questions.David Quammen released his book Spillover in 2012, but in the first few months of 2020 his book’s theme resurfaced and he found himself back in the newspapers, interviews, and in numerous television debates. He illuminates the dynamics of Ebola, SARS, bird flu, Lyme disease, and other emerging threats and tells the story of AIDS and its origins as it has never before been told. David Quammen has tracked this subject from the jungles of Central Africa, the rooftops of Bangladesh, and the caves of southern China to the laboratories where researchers work in space suits to study lethal viruses. Experts call such an event “spillover” and they warn us to brace ourselves. The next big human pandemic-the next disease cataclysm, perhaps on the scale of AIDS or the 1918 influenza-is likely to be caused by a new virus coming to humans from wildlife. To hear the conversation between David Quammen and Samantha Dwyer, click the link above or subscribe to our podcast. This program is made possible through a partnership between Humanities Montana and MTPR. Attention is also given to rural states, as we watch national urban epicenters peak. What might the humanities teach us about a global health crisis? In this conversation, acclaimed science journalist David Quammen speaks to Samantha Dwyer about how the arts and sciences can inform and comfort us, while we search for action and meaning.

Spillover by David Quammen