An intriguing look at the costs to children’s health wrought by bad information and poor parenting.
A pediatrician examines the rise of once-contained and nearly extirpated diseases, especially measles.
Thanks to widespread vaccination programs in the 1950s and 1960s, writes Ratner, diseases such as rotavirus and strep largely disappeared, so much so that pediatric residents often “go through years of training without ever seeing a child with either of these infections.” Just so, polio had almost disappeared until recently. This describes the situation in the developed, wealthy world, Ratner hastens to add: There is a strong differential in childhood diseases between rich and poor communities, and this should not be so. “Every single child diagnosed with measles anywhere in the world represents a system failure—an inexcusable unforced error,” he urges. That system failure has to do with money: Ratner examines the disease patterns in rich and poor neighborhoods in Texarkana, where “living on the wrong side of State Line Avenue can be hazardous to your health.” Money is one issue, and so is the anti-vaccine movement, which fearfully depicts vaccinations as instruments of government control. The result: Whereas in 1994 the world “was on its way to being measles-free,” we see frequent outbreaks in the U.S. alone, particularly in schools. Much of the anti-vaccine, anti-masking, anti-lockdown mentality draws on misinformation and disinformation, Ratner holds, to say nothing of activists such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been in the habit of “ghoulishly spreading unfounded anti-vaccine messages in an attempt to ensure that no tragedy would go to waste.” Noting that “the time to secure furniture to the wall is before a child starts pulling up on it,” Ratner closes by arguing that good science-based education should be put to work to supplant bad information and bad intentions—which, sadly, would seem to be wishful thinking.
An intriguing look at the costs to children’s health wrought by bad information and poor parenting.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9780593330869
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Avery
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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