Book Review : The Invisible Hand of Cancer

The Invisible Hand of Cancer
Carola Schmidt
Genre : Non-fiction
142 Pages, Springer International Publishing AG


“The tear that doesn’t go out, goes in.”


Most of know someone who has or had cancer but do you know cancer predates humans? Why do we judge or blame someone for getting cancer?   Did you know there is something called smoking genes? What leads to cell suicide or apoptosis? Is cancer a single disease or numerous diseases which makes it complex? Why is talking about cancer a taboo in most societies? Why do we need to discuss the politics and economics of cancer apart from the taboo and the fear of death ?  How does dance help in cancer prevention?  Why is cancer a costly disease even though it can affect the poor and they cannot afford the treatment.Should we just blame the pharmaceutical industries or is there more to it? How does structural sexism in the heath sector affect treatment ?Did people buy into the false narrative of the cancer pill or phosphoethanolamine?  These questions and more are answered by the authors in the book, "The Invisible Hand of Cancer"

"When we do not talk about the disease, feelings, pain, and problems, they do not disappear. They grow." - This is one of the most sensible and factual statements in the book. It is one thing to think we are sparing the feeling the one with cancer which is a myth in itself, as families and friends if we don't talk about it or as communities, according to the author we fail to provide support to the person afflicted by cancer and whose fear might grow thinking the family and friends are hiding something dreadful from them. Another is the social taboo in some countries against the children of cancer patients who are already suffering or died, treating the children as if they have inherited the cancer from their parents too. So much is the misunderstanding and the taboo about speaking on cancer that this book is essential to talk about it, so a better understanding of what constitutes different forms of cancer will remove the social taboo in society.  

Cancer affects all - kids, women, men and transgender. However, there is a problem when men avoid the doctor. Is it because society teaches boys to be tough and hence men think the same ? The gender stereotype is also a huge problem when treating cancer especially for men it can be deadly as they fail to go to the doctor until it is too late. Schmidt states that even the juice a patient drinks can affect their chemotherapy despite well intention friends and neighbors. So it is always better to run it with the oncologist and pharmacist team who are responsible for the chemotherapy as it changes with each individual and the dosage is extremely important. She shoots down the so called cancer pill and how many people were led astray. Also she clearly mentions how with no data available in the initial stage in Brazil and since cancer was not a priority for politicians or the judges with malaria being the main priority.

Another very important point raised by the authors is the socioeconomic factors - cancer might seem democratic but is highly discriminating towards the poor - as they lack access to good healthcare, proper food, clean water and medicines, postoperative care and not just lack of money. So one has to approach this one with the Human Development Index in mind and not just GDP of a country. Improved living conditions and lesser pollution of water and air and no adulteration of food can make a huge difference.

The writing is simple, crisp and any reader can understand this. Though it is a huge topic,  Schmidt has edited it in such a way that it is easily understandable to the non-medical reader.

This book is a must read if you or someone you know has or had cancer.

Buy it here  on  Amazon.

Book review: Probably the most important book you will ever read - China Syndrome

 

China Syndrome
by Karl Taro Greenfeld
Genre: Non-fiction
2006, Harper Collins

“He then announced a new policy called “The Three Nos,” which came straight from the Communist Party Publicity Department: no talking to the media about the nature of SARS, no talking to the public about doctors’ personal experience treating the disease, and no communicating with the WHO about anything to do with SARS." - China Syndrome

This is the most important book you can ever read possibly in this century about the SARS coronavirus. Armed with detailed research and personal experience, the author takes you through the politics, economics, cultural and environmental parts of the epidemic which is continuing to this day in its mutated form. It includes what had been the behavioral or environmental change that had created the right circumstances for coronavirus to jump species - urbanization, consumerism, so called "development" and globalization.

While the world was watching and debating the War on Iraq and eyeballs worldwide were glued to TV screens on what was happening in Iraq, the world was facing a deadly global outbreak as the coronavirus had jumped species and human - human transmission was happening in what was then termed SARS. Just when the whole world was questioning the use of the existence of UN because the Iraq war was taking place, the health arm of the UN namely the WHO was working hard trying to get the Chinese government to open up. It was coordinating with multiple countries where the disease outbreak  was seen like US,Vietnam, India, Thailand, Japan, Mongolia, and of course the originator, China.While American CDC discovered it was the coronavirus that caused SARS, the Chinese CDC did too but the the Chinese government gagged them from announcing it apart from indulging in under reporting of deaths, closing of industry which led to migrant worker problems and super spreading as they arrived back in remote parts of China. All the politburo did was try to save face and made it illegal to even share samples inside China  which doctors from Hong Kong managed to smuggle in at great personal loss to identify. The whistle blower was Dr.Jiang Yanyong who was placed under house arrest for sending letters to the Chinese media and Communist party that they needed to inform the world and did through the TIME magazine website. Then there was Dr. Guan Yi who identified the virus and the animal which was spreading it namely the masked palm civet which is popular food in the wet markets in Shenzhen,China and Vietnam apart from SriLankan Dr. Malik Peiris who was working with Yi in HongKong.

It led to the fall of Jiang Zemin and rise of Hu Jianto. By making China, especially Southern China the global manufacturing hub for all things as the whole world chanted the mantra of "More but Cheap" during the Era of Wild Flavor and wet markets created conditions for the virus to jump species. Development and globalisation which leads to cramped work environments is perfect for the virus as it aids in  speeding up replication.With globalisation in travel, we ensured the virus could be in all parts of the world within a day's time.

The writing is crisp, factual and has the humane touch which is hard to come by in this genre. It reads like a thriller which keeps

bringing the line "Truth is stranger than fiction" to mind repeatedly The last words are ominous in the book as the world is now seeing so called waves of the coronavirus aka Covid-19. Greenfeld writes about how it  had already spread from civets to chickens to pigs in 2004 itself and how it was contained and treated. The virus was still among us and while the infectious disease network kept track of it, the rest of the world went back to its merry self pretending the virus is not mutating or doesn't exist.

If only this book had been made mandatory reading for all medical students worldwide, we might have been able to control the

outbreak in 2019 instead of repeating the mistakes the Chinese government did in 2002 which was replicated  by governments

worldwide thanks to international flights and forgetting the SARS outbreak that was contained initially by massive killing of

certain animals. Media and social media failed to spread awareness during SARS, avian flu, swine flu and now Covid-19 - which

seems to be a mutated form of the same virus  which in 2003 was termed "Breath taker" before it was given the term SARS.

 

Failing to review this book and following it up with stories on the ground seems to be the massive mistake that the world media has made and concentrating on the so called "War on Terror" experiences. If only there had been awareness, research for vaccines could have begun almost 20 years ago and millions of lives would have been saved and we would have been relatively less likely to be in this mess we are in now worldwide.

Buy the book here