In the beginning of the second half of this book the author, John Barry, talks about the specific origins of how the disease appeared. It was likely that World War I created the epidemic. Even though it did not originate in Europe, the first cases of the disease were found in Brest, France, shortly after April 1, 1918. The flu made its way across both the Allied and Axis armies. Although many people were sick from it, few died instantly from it. Because they could not die instantly from it, there was a hopeful chance that a doctor could save them. A German commandor, Erich Van Ludendorff, blamed his army's failure on the offensiveness of the disease. It had a negagtive affect on everyone because it came as such a bad time during the war. Equally, …show more content…
He described the routines of viral attacks on the cells in the respiratory track as well as the immune system's response. The virus has the ability to enter a cell rather than fuse with it, and to therefore hide from the immune system. Within a few hours, between 100,000 and 1 million more viruses were duplicated and released into the body to attack the new cells. Unlike other viruses of the time, this influenza virus, or RNA virus, was able to mutate and adapt quickly. Because of this, the virus was so hard to attack. Additionally, readers go on to learn what embodies a normal immune response and what exactly immunity is. All the basics needed to understand what happens during an invasion by a virus and how it defends against an attack by an invader with antibodies and antigens, is explained. The book concludes with facts regarding how the virus abruptedly ended. After the second wave of the virus struck, cases randomly dropped. A theory holds that doctors, during the time, figured out the perfect treatment for preventing the long-lasting sickness that caused pneumonia. This evidence, however, has yet to be …show more content…
It was a really interesting and enjoying read. I value the author John Barry and his way of writing in this book. His report for desribing the way the virus touches on the genes of its victims really allows for the reader to understand the type of impact the epidemic really had on the world. He details the important aspects of science so that his readers are aware. Barry gets descriptive in describing the duplicate process of the cells in the immune system. While reading the second part of the novel I was able to read behind the scenes, because Barry literally described what was happening in the body of all his victims. I asked myself questions regarding the different types of cell mutation explained. I was even confused about some of the big scientology words so I looked them up in the dictionary as well. Reading this novel helped deepen any insights I previously had and it somewhat ties to unit we are on now. The book described cells in the immune system and for Unit 10, we are learning about the parts to the cell. Many main ideas pop up a lot in the book like the collision between science and epidemic disease. Men and women from around the world were forced into extensive research regarding a virus they had never known. Their work in this disaster led to fundamental discoveries that