Book overview
For those who lived through this period, this book is a painful but gripping read. First serialized online, it has garnered praise from the world over for its steady tone, granular detail, narrative precision, and moral passion. The times felt like a blur because normal life was so upended in unthinkable ways. This book operates as a tool of focus as if on a camera lens, turning fuzzy images into clear pictures. Therein lies the pain. The author is listed as the institutional name because it is true. The results herein are the product of a vast community of researchers, nearly all independent from academia and the science establishment, though many medical practitioners contributed. Piecing all this together has been herculean and the research behind it all made possible only through tremendous digging and sleuthing. Integrating it all is an achievement. This is a credible first draft of a history that legacy institutions want forgotten. We cannot forget, nor allow court historians of the future to pretend as if the last five years were an earnest effort with some mistakes along the way. It was not that at all. It was a studied and concerted effort to end what we once called civilization.
