Just Finished Reading: The Rules of Contagion – Why Things Spread and Why They Stop by Adam Kucharski (FP: 2020) [266pp] 

I’m pretty confident when I say that we’re all far more familiar with the basics of epidemiology than we ever thought we’d need to be even a few years ago. We’re no longer phased or confused by concepts like the R number, by vectors of transmission or, my personal favourite, the word asymptomatic. Even so, it’s always good to read the actual science behind such things rather than relying too much on journalistic or political interpretation of the science.  

This book was a birthday present (yes, I’m THAT kind of person) which has been sitting in the book pile for a few years. It’s not that I’ve had enough of pandemics by now but that it takes me a while to get around to things and this was a heavy hardback version. But it was worth the wait. The author is an epidemiologist, but his interests extend beyond the world of viruses and bacteria into the surprisingly congruent world of computer viruses, memes, conspiracy theories and Facebook fads. Maybe not surprisingly, it's entirely possible to use the methodology and mathematics of infection to track trends in misinformation and rumour. It’s also possible to track infectious ideas across social media from the ice bucket challenge to waves of suicide following an event either in the social media world itself or within the celebrity circus we’ve created. Likewise, we can see how advertising campaigns ‘go viral’ whilst most fizzle and die without much of anyone noticing their existence never mind their demise.  

Covering a vast field, from the earliest ideas of how infections spread (from Cholera and malaria onwards) as well as ways to combat them - once the germ theory had been accepted by most doctors and other medical professionals – before moving onto their non-biological analogues this was a fascinating look at the world of contagion. But one of the things I found most fascinating in the whole book was what wasn’t mentioned – Covid-19. I’m guessing that, despite its publication date in 2020, this must have been submitted for publication just before the pandemic became headline news and all that we’re most familiar with started happening. The author does, occasionally, mention future pandemics but doesn’t dwell too much on them. This made my reading experience a little ‘bizarre’ at times when there’s almost an ‘afterimage’ or echo between reading about this stuff and living through it.  

A substantial chunk of the book looked at the online world, concentrating on a number of things including obvious computer viruses and the way organisations like Facebook attempted to manipulate people's emotions by manipulating their news feeds. There were several interesting discussions of how websites tried (and all too often failed) to make stories ‘go viral’ by design. There was also an interesting debate about both Brexit and the Trump presidential election which poured a fair bit of cold water on the idea that Internet trolls had much effect either way. Overall, this was a fascinating look at the world we have created and provided much, much food for thought – both at how we deal with pandemics (badly!) and how we might better deal with some of the negative effects of social media. Definitely recommended for anyone who wants to look behind the daily headlines.  

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