The Invisible Siege : The Rise of Coronaviruses - Dan Werb - 9780593239230 - Random House USA

"A journey into the origins of COVID-19 and the discovery of vaccines and potential cures . . . I learned so much that I didnt know before--above all, I met the subtle warriors of the laboratory who are working to save all of us from the horror of new pandemics."--Richard Preston, bestselling author of The Hot Zone and The Demon in the Freezer
One of Publishers Weeklys top ten science books of the seasonThe urgency of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic has fixed humanitys gaze on the present crisis. But the story of this pandemic extends far further back than many realize. In this engrossing narrative, epidemiologist Dan Werb traces the rising threat of the coronavirus family and the attempts by a small group of scientists who worked for decades to stop a looming viral pandemic.When virologist Ralph Baric began researching coronaviruses in the 1980s, the field was a scientific backwater--the few variants that infected humans caused little more than the common cold. But when a novel coronavirus sparked the 2003 SARS epidemic, and then the MERS epidemic a decade later, Baric and his allies realized that time was running out before a pandemic strain would make the inevitable jump from animals to human hosts.