The Great Influenza

Much of the book is devoted to identifying the traits that make a good scientist. What are those traits, and which do you think are most important?

This edition of the book was published before the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. What advice from Barry’s Afterword has been ignored by leaders in 2020? Do you think that has contributed to the response to the virus internationally?

The history of the influenza pandemic is not widely known. What did you know of it before you opened the book? What surprised you as you read the book? Do you think the history of the pandemic should be more widely taught? Why or why not?

Barry notes that the “disease has survived in memory more than in any literature” (393). Even though there are several classic novels about World War I, there are practically no books about the pandemic. Why do you think this is the case? Do you think there will be a similar dearth of literature about COVID-19?

Barry argues that a scientist can never really be certain about anything. How does that complicate or confirm his narrative about the role the pandemic played in the history of scientific discovery?

Barry dedicates The Great Influenza to “the spirit that was Paul Lewis.” Given that Lewis serves as something of a cautionary tale, what about Lewis’s story struck Barry enough to dedicate the book to him and to end the book with his story?

Barry suggests several factors that contributed to the pandemic, including the war, censorship, bad leadership, bad medicine, and bad luck. Which factor do you think contributed the most? Conversely, if one factor were changed, what impact might that change have had on the pandemic?

What parallels to COVID-19 do you see in the influenza pandemic of 1918? What is different in 2020 from 1918?