A Crown of Thorns: The Coronavirus and Us

‘Like all great stories, COVID-19 is a tragedy, a love story gone seriously wrong.’

As COVID-19 sweeps the planet, we are panicked and baffled. Bombarded with disinformation and panic-inducing statistics, we are cowed by the enormity and uncertainty of what’s unfolding.

The narrative, so far, has been about this novel coronavirus.

But COVID-19 is not just about SARS-CoV-2.

It is about the virus and us.

We have coexisted with viruses from the dawn of evolution. What has changed? Is it this ‘new virus’? Or, has something changed in us? Have we disrupted something crucial in Nature?

A Crown of Thorns is science and history woven into the human story—the long view on a pandemic that’s consuming us.

Drs Ishrat Syed and Kalpana Swaminathan, writing as Kalpish Ratna, distil their study of plagues and epidemics into a work packed with ideas that provoke and insights that illuminate.

The clearest account yet of COVID-19, this book will endure new revelations about this virus and serve as a strong basis for future understanding.

Review
‘What do they know of the virus who only the virus know? Sars-Cov-2 explained through vignettes and brilliantly syncopated tutorials on physiology, immunology, causal patterns and environmental ethics. A lucid yet emphatic explainer, a much needed foil for the bombast of the news cycle. Kalpish Ratna are writers of rare intellectual prowess. This is an invaluable companion for our year of the pestilence.’

– Ambarish Satwik, vascular surgeon and author of Perineum: Nether Parts of the Empire