Recent Reads: Apollo's Arrow

​There are so many unclear messages about the pandemic of 2020. How did it start? How did it spread? Why are we still fighting it today? There is so much fake news and social media edited news. There are verbal battles people are fighting on their social media walls. I do research, sometimes. Other times I like to read.

A few weeks back I picked up “Apollo’s Arrow”, written by Nicholas A. Christakis. A man who has written several interesting books and whose bio on the Wikipedia page states that he is “a sociologist and physician know of his health research” and other important topics.
His book “Apollo’s Arrow” was just recently published in October of (whew, now LAST year) 2020 talks about the unclear future we are facing as the pandemic not only takes hold of the planet but also how much it will change everything we do.

He describes well the first of the big shutdowns in China from December 2019 to January 2020. Yes, he does mention the wet market and freshly butchered wildlife and how maybe it was the cause of this fancy new virus.

In his book, he tells stories of a human that managed to survive no only the Spanish Flu of 1918 but also made it through the 2020s.

He describes other pandemics that we might have forgotten while solely focusing on the narrowly focused new of today with the lens pointing directly to North America.

Christakis teaches us new words like ‘anosmia’, a common word we’ve been using in 2020 and still fear today. He talks about other viruses that were far more deadly making Covid 19 an easier virus to share with your friends and family without killing them.

He also reminds us of how easy and important it is to follow simple actionable advice to slow down the spread that overwhelms our healthcare systems. “Apollo’s Arrow” reminds us that we should also look at how things were done previously and why slowing the spread works. How about them NCIs? Hello, Non-pharmaceutical interventions!

The best part of the book for me is that it examines the economic, social, and global effects of the pandemic, some of which we forget to think about while living in our personalized fear bubbles.  
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Maybe it’s time we learn something about the selfless dynamics that operate this planet while seeing the impact on a large scale. After all, the Earth did stand more still in 2020 and there are records to show it. Take a moment in the stillness of this chaotic world while reading a book full of interesting facts and things to think about more deeply. 

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Here's the link to where I got the book from during the world wide pandemic and I must say that as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Because that's that small print you need to include for sharing the online gold.
Click the book to get the link. Or look for it in your local independent book store. * side note: I buy a lot of independent book store books by liking the cover.