Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond | Sonia Shah | Talks at Google

Interweaving history, original reportage, and personal narrative, Pandemic explores the origins of epidemics, drawing parallels between the story of cholera--one of history's most disruptive and deadly pathogens--and the new pathogens that stalk humankind today, from Ebola and avian influenza to drug-resistant superbugs.

Sonia Shah is a science journalist and prize-winning author. Her writing on science, politics, and human rights has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Scientific American and elsewhere. Her 2010 book, The Fever, which was called a "tour-de-force history of malaria" (New York Times), "rollicking" (Time), and "brilliant" (Wall Street Journal) was long-listed for the Royal Society's Winton Prize.

[cortagravatas]

I'm not convinced by her response to the plague question. If she had studied plague she would know that in 1347-51 it spread rapidly due to commercial interconnections, mostly borne by ships. It is also hypothesized (see John Barry, The Great Mortality) that the disturbance of a natural habitat (marmots hunted by fur-traders) was at play in the unleashing of the plague. Crowding and lack of hygiene also played a part.
And how come Sonia didn't study the plague? It's pretty close to the subject of her research.

[maggiebr]

is that latif nasser asking a question at the end?