Friday's Elk: Air-Borne taking flight (in some really rough weather)

AIR-BORNE is coming out on Tuesday! After working on this book for three years, I’m very excited for people to finally read it. I am also eager to share some news about AIR-BORNE.

But first things first.

Let’s catch up on all the news about science and medicine in the United States since my last email two weeks ago. In that brief time, things have gone from bad to worse.

—It was startling enough when an influenza virus jumped last year from birds to cows. Now it turns out that H5N1 has jumped into cows at least three times.

—The Centers for Disease Control, which plays a crucial role in monitoring the H5N1 crisis, has been massively disrupted by the Trump administration—which has imposed communication blackouts and layoffs.

—The Trump administration also fired USDA officials in charge of fighting bird flu in farmed birds. The government reportedly is now trying to rehire them.

—A judge told the Trump administration to stop holding back NIH research grants, but it is exploiting a loophole to keep the freeze in place. Scientists are telling me things are getting so dire that they’re making plans to scale back their future work.

—Layoffs have decimated the scientific workforce across the government. Experts told Technology Review that “dismantling the behind-the-scenes scientific research programs that backstop American life could lead to long-lasting, perhaps irreparable damage to everything from the quality of health care to the public’s access to next-generation consumer technologies.”

—As measles swept through under-vaccinated communities, the Department of Health and Human Services pulled back vaccine ad campaigns and postponed the next meeting of its vaccine advisory committee. The new HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reportedly plans to push out some of its members.

—Kennedy has also killed NIH programs that address the health effects of climate change, just after the hottest January on record.

—Meanwhile, the new Energy Secretary is extolling the upside of global warming. (This misleading idea has been around for a while; I addressed it a few years ago in this column.)

AIR-BORNE IN NEWSWEEK, NATURE AND MORE

Whew. Ok, now about the book:

—Newsweek published an excerpt from the prologue of AIR-BORNE, along with a Q&A with me on Covid, wildfires, and more.

—Meanwhile, the New York Times can read an excerpt from AIR-BORNE about how Louis Pasteur climbed a glacier to discover floating germs. It is accompanied by some lovely artwork.

—Nautilus interviewed me about the book.

—Publisher’s Weekly gave AIR-BORNE a starred review: "This astute history of the scientific debates that shaped the Covid crisis will take readers’ breath away."

—Nature published a long review by aerobiologist Linsey Marr, who called AIR-BORNE “enthralling.”

—I talked to Rachel Feltman for the Scientific American podcast. Plus, here’s a fun, long conversation with Jonathan Evison on his new podcast, A Fresh Face in Hell.

—You can pre-order a signed copy here, and look for my book tour stops here. First stop: New York on Tuesday!

Thanks for reading. Stay safe!

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