{"id":37833,"date":"2021-11-19T01:25:03","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T09:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=37833"},"modified":"2021-12-27T17:53:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T01:53:56","slug":"kallas-latest-great-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2021\/11\/19\/kallas-latest-great-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalla\u2019s latest great read"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s something comforting about reading a thriller writer whose novels you\u2019ve enjoyed in the past. You know exactly what to expect, and yet the pages almost turn themselves. Given, however, that we\u2019ve been living through a real pandemic for almost two years now, it might feel \u201ctoo close to home\u201d to pick up a Daniel Kalla \u2013 who writes about mysterious diseases that run rampant, plagues that resurface, surging deaths from opioids and other such things \u2013 but, somehow, he makes it fun rather than depressing. His latest, Lost Immunity<\/em> (Simon & Schuster), is a great read.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>It helps that Kalla is a real medical doctor. An emergency room physician here in Vancouver, he knows that of which he speaks and can relate complicated information without sounding didactic. And there\u2019s always what to explain in his books. In Lost Immunity<\/em>, the lessons are particularly relevant, about how a bacteria spreads, the challenges of contact tracing and containment, the benefits and side effects of vaccines, the concept of herd immunity, etc., etc. But he does all this while being completely entertaining. Readers of Lost Immunity<\/em> will have an idea of what Dr. Bonnie Henry and her team have been going through these last many months \u2013 minus (I hope) the human killer element.<\/p>\n

Lost Immunity<\/em> features a smart and likeable protagonist in Lisa Dyer, Seattle\u2019s new chief public health officer. In a community health forum about a law mandating immunization for middle-school girls and boys with the latest HPV vaccine, Dyer takes on the doubters \u2013 members of \u201cthe \u2018vaccine hesitancy\u2019 community\u201d \u2013 calmly and compassionately, with science always as her guide. Within this community are her own sister and father, so she\u2019s had much practice.<\/p>\n

As exhausting and frustrating as the forum is, Dyer\u2019s job gets more challenging even before the Q&A is over \u2013 \u201cher phone buzzes on the lectern. She can\u2019t help but glance down at the health advisory from her office that pops up on the screen. \u2018Four dead from meningitis. All attended the same local Bible camp.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The campers are children and teenagers, and the death rate rises quickly. (I admit to having skimmed the parts about dying kids, as they added a little too much realism for me.) Dyer and her colleagues must try to contain the outbreak \u2013 of the same strain of bacteria that caused 35 deaths in short order in Iceland six months earlier, and for which an American pharmaceutical firm is doing final-phase trials on a promising vaccine. Dyer pressures the company into\u00a0releasing the vaccine early \u2013 as the mortality rate in Iceland was 46% \u2013 and goes ahead with a vaccination campaign. At first, it seems to be working, but then some severe and fatal apparent side effects bring everything to a halt. But is it really the vaccine that\u2019s responsible? Even if you can probably guess the answer, Dyer\u2019s journey to get there is full of twists, as well as fascinating exchanges on all\u00a0aspects of the vaccination issue.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

For a review of Daniel Kalla\u2019s <\/em>We All Fall Down, visit jewishindependent.ca\/could-the-plague-come-back<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s something comforting about reading a thriller writer whose novels you\u2019ve enjoyed in the past. You know exactly what to expect, and yet the pages almost turn themselves. Given, however, that we\u2019ve been living through a real pandemic for almost two years now, it might feel \u201ctoo close to home\u201d to pick up a Daniel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[8858,6133,21018,9812,20356,20541],"class_list":["post-37833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-daniel-kalla","tag-fiction","tag-lost-immunity","tag-pandemic","tag-thriller","tag-vaccination"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}