China Syndrome; The True Story of the 21st Century's First Great Epidemic Hardcover - 2006

New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2006. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Dennis Wong (Map) and Wei Leng Tay (Photographer). xx, 442, [2] pages. Dramatis Personae. Notes on Sources and Further Reading. Index. Karl Taro Greenfeld (born 1964 in Kobe, Japan) is a journalist, novelist and television writer known primarily for his articles on life in modern Asia and both his fiction and non-fiction in The Paris Review. Born in Kobe, Japan, to a Japanese mother and an American father, the writers Fumiko Kometani and Josh Greenfeld, Greenfeld grew up in Los Angeles and went to college in New York City, graduating from Sarah Lawrence in 1987. He served as an Assistant Language Teacher on the JET Programme in Japan from 1988-89. A regular contributor to publications such as GQ, The Atlantic and Vogue, Greenfeld was the managing editor of Tokyo Journal before becoming the editor of Time Asia from 2002-2004 and editor-at-large at Sports Illustrated from 2004-2007. He was the Tokyo correspondent for The Nation. He is the author of three books about Asia: Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan's Next Generation and Standard Deviations: Growing Up and Coming Down in the New Asia, and an account of the breakout of the SARS virus, China Syndrome: The True Story of the 21st Century's First Great Epidemic. His novel Triburbia is about a group of families living in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan. His novel The Subprimes about a woman who may or may not be the messiah and the band of impoverished homeless Americans she comes to lead. He is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a Knight-Bagehott Fellow of Columbia University. Derived from a Kirkus review: Former Time Asia editor Greenfeld probes the SARS outbreak and the Chinese government's efforts to deny its existence. "Yoga instructors in Santa Monica and investment bankers in New York have no idea of the role that a few scientists, doctors, and public health officials in Hong Kong play in keeping them hale and hearty," writes Greenfeld. A horseracing track in Hong Kong marked the debut there of what became known as SARS-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-and its management feared that this new disease would result in the deaths of at least a thousand thoroughbreds and the loss of millions of dollars. That management, and the doctors and epidemiologists called to the case, were right to worry that the disease might jump across species. Indeed, elsewhere in China, people were becoming sick, soon dying in droves. The race to discover the cause of SARS, which first appeared in the fall of 2002, makes a fascinating story, and Greenfeld recounts it vividly and coherently; yet, as he points out, much of that story of scientific detection and international teamwork remains little known simply because other world events-chiefly the U.S. invasion of Iraq-kept the story off the front page. The Chinese government refused to acknowledge the problem and that Chinese doctors discouraged Western disease specialists from offering aid; by the sixth month of the outbreak, which lasted slightly more than a year. Hundreds died by the time a cause and remedy were found. A taut scientific thriller, well told. Kirkus ended its review by writing "Suffice it to say that conditions are ripe for a replay of the disease; keep an eye out for a grim sequel." Few would challenge the assertion that COVID-19 is that grim sequel.