Until Proven Safe The History & Future of Quarantine

Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley explore the history and future of quarantine, from the Black Death to Big Data.

Quarantine has shaped our buildings, cities, and borders for centuries, yet, as a concept, it remains both feared and misunderstood.

In Until Proven Safe, journalists Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley climb through the ruins of quarantine hospitals in Venice, Dubrovnik, and Malta, don hardhats to visit a new federal quarantine facility in the heart of the United States, and attend simulated pandemics--one eerily similar to COVID-19--in New York and Washington D.C.

Although quarantine, at its heart, works by separating people suspected of illness from those known to be well, even this simple distinction leads to entire realms of philosophical uncertainty, ethical risk, and the potential abuse of political power. What if we don't know we are infected? Quarantine has been an effective medical tool for 600 years, but it is also an unusually poetic metaphor for any number of moral and religious ills: it means waiting to see if something hidden inside you will be revealed.

You must remain in quarantine--until proven safe.

Until Proven Safe tracks the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space--from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean to the hallways of the CDC, to the corporate giants hoping to disrupt quarantine today armed with surveillance technology and Big Data.

Yet quarantine is more than just a medical tool: the authors also drop deep into the Earth to tour a nuclear-waste isolation facility beneath the New Mexican desert, strip down to nothing but protective Tyvek suits to see plants stricken with a disease that threatens the world's wheat supply, and meet with NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, tasked with saving the Earth from extraterrestrial infections.

The result is part travelogue, part intellectual history, an exhaustively researched trip that could not be more urgent or timely--and a book as compelling as it is definitive.

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.

Until Proven Safe tracks the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space--from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean, built to contain the Black Death, to an experimental Ebola unit in London, and from the hallways of the CDC to closed-door simulations where pharmaceutical execs and epidemiologists prepare for the outbreak of a novel coronavirus.

But the story of quarantine ranges far beyond the history of medical isolation. In Until Proven Safe, the authors tour a nuclear-waste isolation facility beneath the New Mexican desert, see plants stricken with a disease that threatens the world's wheat supply, and meet NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, tasked with saving Earth from extraterrestrial infections. They also introduce us to the corporate tech giants hoping to revolutionize quarantine through surveillance and algorithmic prediction.

Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley have been researching quarantine since long before the COVID-19 pandemic. With Until Proven Safe, they bring us a book as compelling as it is definitive, not only urgent reading for social-distanced times but also an up-to-the-minute investigation of the interplay of forces---biological, political, technological--that shape our modern world. It is a thrillingly reported, thought-provoking exploration of the meaning of freedom, governance, and mutual responsibility. We live in a disorienting historical moment that can feel both unprecedented and inevitable; Until Proven Safe helps us make sense of our new reality.

Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley have been researching quarantine since long before the COVID-19 pandemic. With Until Proven Safe, they bring us a book as compelling as it is definitive, not only urgent reading for social-distanced times but also an up-to-the-minute investigation of the interplay of forces---biological, political, technological--that shape our modern world.

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.

Until Proven Safe tracks the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space--from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean, built to contain the Black Death, to an experimental Ebola unit in London, and from the hallways of the CDC to closed-door simulations where pharmaceutical execs and epidemiologists prepare for the outbreak of a novel coronavirus.

But the story of quarantine ranges far beyond the history of medical isolation. In Until Proven Safe, the authors tour a nuclear-waste isolation facility beneath the New Mexican desert, see plants stricken with a disease that threatens the world's wheat supply, and meet NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, tasked with saving Earth from extraterrestrial infections. They also introduce us to the corporate tech giants hoping to revolutionize quarantine through surveillance and algorithmic prediction.

We live in a disorienting historical moment that can feel both unprecedented and inevitable; Until Proven Safe helps us make sense of our new reality through a thrillingly reported, thought-provoking exploration of the meaning of freedom, governance, and mutual responsibility.