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Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
Author: David Quammen
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Page: 406
Price: $28.99
“Nobody,” Donald Trump claimed in a March 2020 address, “had any idea.” He was talking about the Covid virus — which had, seemingly overnight, sparked a global pandemic. In his compelling and terrifying new book, the veteran science journalist David Quammen demonstrates just how much was known — and expected — by infectious disease scientists long before patrons of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market fell ill in December 2019 with a pneumonia-like virus.
Quammen was among those who had long predicted this kind of catastrophe. In
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