Jennifer Wright's "Get Well Soon": A Look at History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them

Samantha Gillespie: If you like history and a good chuckle this book is for you. I’ve found myself laughing out loud a couple times and I’m only about one chapter in. I really like Jennifer’s writing style and her witty personality shines through. It’s also interesting to read it now in this post Covid world.

United States on May 23, 2023

Amazon Customer: I don’t understand how this book has such a high rating. I felt some chapters were a bit bare as if the author didn’t research the topic sufficiently. The chapter about lobotomies was mildly interesting, again if a bit bare, but completely off-topic. I didn’t go for her attempts at humour either, Bill Bryson she ain’t.
Saying all that, I wouldn’t rule out trying another of her books.

United Kingdom on May 17, 2023

Kindle Customer: I just want to say that over and over.

Read the book. Learn about what it takes to face pandemics (uh, successfully - duh - not like how the US started out with Covid.)

Then choose your local , state, federal and international leaders on their abilities to LEAD during crisis. Our governor, in NM, had a background in public health, in our very own State, which made her an expert on the very unique public health crisis that Covid presented here.

I would love for Ms. Wright, if she could stand it, to write about the vast MESS that was caused because Trump shut down the team assembled during the Obama administration to deal with ... Yeah - pandemics. Of course it will take decades to uncover the damage done in just the first year of Trump's "administration" but millions of lives were lost for NO REASON except that an extremely ignorant, inexperienced, and ineffective leader was allowed to take control. And then there was a crisis. (Read Get Well Soon. History repeats itself until we pay attention.)

Anyway our governor was another HERO! And, amazingly, SHE got reelected! YAY! It DOES MATTER WHO YOU VOTE FOR, people. Pull your heads out.

Ms. Wright, it...

United States on Jan 19, 2023

Rosemary Standeven: This is a surprisingly readable, informative and amusing book – given its subject – and ideally suited to the current worldwide crisis. Some of the plagues I already knew a lot about (Syphilis and Tuberculosis), having written assignments on them for my Herbal Medicine degree (and NO, herbal medicine will NOT cure either of them, I just found the diseases interesting). Others I knew a bit about, but learned so much more.
For instance – the so-called Spanish Flu originated in Kansas, USA, but due to WWI media restrictions no-one in USA, Britain etc was allowed to report on it. Spain was neutral, reported the deaths, and so got the blame. The dancing plague in Strasbourg was entirely new to me.
There is a lot to be learned from the genesis, spread and treatment of old plagues that can be applied to the current COVID19, and the author does not shy away from scathing comments on doctors and politicians who were more interested in their own affairs than helping the public. There is also repeated (and wholly deserved) condemnation of Anti-vaxxers and people who will not listen to the genuine experts, and believe that they know best, despite overwhelming scientific proof of...

United Kingdom on Apr 23, 2020

Mary: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
by Jennifer Wright (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 178 customer reviews
I bought this book when it was a much cheaper Kindle book. I found that this is a valuable history dealing with what was needed many years ago and now when we are faced with a disease that we cannot initially cure. It goes back to 161 AD but it is not dated. It is well documented with pages of hyperlinks.
The writer is compassionate and adds a bit of humor. It tends to be self-deprecating. It is worth reading just to find out what Pres. Woodrow Wilson did NOT do and refused to do during the so-called Spanish flu that killed more Americans than the whole Civil War. He had doctors warning him to not have parades. We did not know what to do with this virus but it was known that it was contagious. It covers the romantic view given to T.B. Death from this disease was not romantic. Yet, healthy women tried to imitate the look. Do not miss the very false idea that syphilis leads to genius and why and why people had this idea. We are still linking giftedness with certain mental disorders. A disease is a disease. The importance...

United States on Jul 02, 2019

Rana: An enjoyable book especially for the casual reader.

India on Nov 29, 2018

Tanudja Gibson: Pitched at the right level, humorous but in a good way, informative and interesting. Definitely worth reading - appropriate for all ages.

Australia on Oct 27, 2018

MICHEL - BERNARD: BIEN ÉCRIT, TRES INTÉRESSANT, UN MÉLANGE D'HISTOIRE SÉRIEUSE & DE DÉTENTE.

Canada on Feb 25, 2018

Christo: If Jennifer Wright wrote all the history books I had to read back in High School, I would have become a history teacher myself. Get Well Soon is a fine book that views our response to plagues with unfailingly humane context. Plagues are fascinating, horrifying and ultimately unifying. They are a common enemy for all humans, the thing against which all of us should be united, no matter the color of our flag.

Jennifer Wright deserves a place in the grand conversation, and by grand conversation I mean our shared discourse of all things. Many intelligent people, including intelligent people who know very well how many other people out there are more intelligent that they are, and that we can learn from everyone, (well, almost everyone - some are useful only as test subjects), unite around the world as explained through comedy. Jennifer Wright does use a lot of humor to teach us about plagues, the way John Oliver uses a lot of comedy to teach us about UEFA or corruption inside the Miss America contest. She uses humor the same way Samantha Bee does to teach us about political insanity. While Mr. Oliver and Ms. Bee only have a week to figure out how to educate us, Ms. Wright has...

United States on Mar 19, 2017