Until Proven Safe cover

Until Proven Safe

by Geoff Manaugh

"Journalists Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley explore the history and future of quarantine, from the Black Death to Big Data"-- Quarantine is our most powerful response to uncertainty: it means waiting to see if something hidden inside us will be revealed. It is also one of our most dangerous, operating through an assumption of guilt. In quarantine, we are considered infectious until proven safe. Manaugh and Twilly track the history and future of quarantine around the globe. It is a story of emergency isolation, but they also guide us through a nuclear-waste isolation facility beneath the New Mexican desert; plants stricken with a disease that threatens the world's wheat supply; and a meeting with NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, tasked with saving Earth from extraterrestrial infections. -- adapted from jacket

More by Geoff Manaugh

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?