Description: Chosen by Discover magazine as one of the top science books of 2005
"A terrific and groundbreaking book."
--Bob Kerrey, Publishers Weekly
"Marc Siegel is an articulate voice of reason in a world beset by hype and hysteria. We would be well advised to listen closely to what he has to say."
--Jerome Groopman, M.D., staff writer, The New Yorker
"Siegel makes a passionate argument that the only thing we have to fear is, indeed, our own paranoia. Reason, he says, is the best vaccination for this epidemic."
--Psychology Today
"Siegel cuts through the hype about the 'deadly' this and the 'lethal' that, and applies reason in seeking the answers."
--John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
"Timely and needed. At such times, we need soothsayers and explicators to redirect the ready-fire-aim mind-set. Siegel's book fulfills this role well."
--The Journal of the American Medical Association
"A color-coded burst of sanity amid the fear and frenzy of twenty-first-century America."
--Walter Shapiro, Washington Bureau Chief, Salon
Review Quotes: "Anthrax, vaccine shortages, and SARS, oh my! Americans have been pummeled with an endless series of apparent threats. Siegel makes a passionate argument that the only thing we have to fear is, indeed, our own paranoia. Reason, he says, is the best vaccination for this epidemic." ("Psychology Today, September/October 2005)
"Marc Siegel tries to reduce the hysteria quotient with a straightforward recitation of facts and statistics. Recalling the famous Orson Welles broadcast of "The War of the Worlds," Siegel tries all too sensibly (and one suspects futilely) to assess risk accurately and respond only to "plausible" threats such as the vulnerability of our container ships or "loose nukes" in former Soviet republics." (Benamin Barber, "Los Angeles Times, August 7, 2005)