Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

"This is a book about the COVID-19 pandemic, but what makes this read unique is that it doesn’t go into the preparedness of countries or how they dealt with COVID-19. Rather, it takes you on a detective-like journey through the science of COVID-19. It looks at the theories on its origins and the scientists who worked relentlessly on understanding the biology of the virus itself and then the development of the vaccines against it. A lot of people think that the vaccine development happened quite fast, me included. However, in reality, RNA-type vaccine technology has been in the works for years. Scientists have been working on mRNA vaccine technology for decades and were then able to take that technology and effectively apply it to COVID-19. One thing the author does that I found enjoyable is that he includes interviews and conversations with eminent scientists in the field throughout the world. This allows the reader to get their expert opinion on COVID-19. Again, it’s a very complex topic. He’s talking about the origins and the biology of COVID-19, but the author is able to break that down for the reader. It’s written in a way that’s easily understood which I believe makes this read quite appealing. The author also writes about the inequality in the world regarding the vaccine and its availability. In the Western world, we were lucky to have access to this vaccine. However, there are a lot of countries that didn’t have that access. The book emphasizes that until the whole world is vaccinated and protected from COVID-19—or any other type of virus—really none of us are because the way these viruses are able to spread is quite scary. I liked that he brought that to our attention. No. Based on expert science opinion, it is most likely that the virus had a zoonotic origin in bats, possibly via an intermediate host, but there’s no conclusive answer."