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The Elephant in the Room - Liz Kalaugher ****

This is by no means a jolly read - with vivid stories, Liz Kalaugher takes us into the world of zoonotic diseases, both where humans are infected by largely wild animal diseases and where we spread disease among other species.

The book voyages around the world and into the prehistoric past (entertainingly in a chapter that begins at Bristol bus station, the way all prehistory stories probably should), suggesting that perhaps the Neanderthals were wiped out by a lack of disease resistance. Kalaugher takes us on a genuinely engaging voyage of discovery, taking in a diverse range of fauna from honeycreepers and Tasmanian devils to ferrets, frogs and foxes. If, like me, you are distinctly averse to reading about anything medical, the thought of encountering avian pox, plague, West Nile virus and more can be a little unnerving, but on the whole the stories are more about the animals and their environment than too much medical detail.

Probably the weakest part of the book, as is often the case where a very difficult challenge is identified, is coming up with practical solutions. Some are, to a degree, being implemented - so, for instance, Kalaugher points out the real dangers on the edges of tropical and sub-tropical forests - as deforestation happens, the animals most likely to bring diseases to humans are those like bats and rats, most likely to survive and move into cities, spreading those diseases. Reducing deforestation is an obvious win-win both on the disease front and for climate change impact.

In other cases, it's harder to pin down a workable solution. We saw, for example, with Covid how much global travel was to blame for the rapid spread of the disease, but it seems unlikely to be something many are likely to want to ban for health reasons, however sensible it may be. (Kalaugher toes the academic party line of suppressing any suggestion of a lab leak, suggesting it 'creates an anti-science agenda that leaves us more vulnerable', without addressing the way that coverups also generate an anti-science agenda.) I also felt there was over-sensitivity in the solutions on dealing with cultural issues like traditional medicine and consumption of wild animals. But we do get a few glimmers of hope. It's not cheery - but it's an important topic.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

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