Garrett takes us to India, where she meticulously examines the course of the countrys pneumonic plague; to Zaire, where the Ebola virus is still largely unchecked; and to Russia, where bad policy and a collapsing society have made for staggering setbacks in all areas of health. Garrett also exposes the ungoverned world of biological terrorism.
Laurie Garrett was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1996 for a series of works published in Newsday that chronicled the Ebola virus outbreak in Zaire.
If Laurie Garrett hadn't interrupted her science career to pursue journalism, she probably would have been a professor at a top-rate university doing AIDS research in her lab, says Lee Herzenberg, geneticist at Stanford University and a longtime mentor for Garrett.
Garrett (born 1951) had advanced to a doctoral candidacy in immunology at University of California at Berkeley before deciding that "journalism would be more fun and interesting." She learned the craft at a California radio station, eventually joining National Public Radio as a science correspondent. After eight years at NPR, she joined Newsday in 1986. It was an unusual hiring for Newsday; Garrett had no newspaper experience.
But Garrett, whose flamboyant personality matches her spirit of adventure, already was experienced at traveling the world reporting on new diseases, especially the emergence of AIDS in East Africa. For Newsday, she returned to Africa for further reporting on AIDS and to India where she wrote about a plague outbreak. During the Persian Gulf war, when Jordan's borders were closed, Garrett managed to get in from Israel with a Paris-based doctors' group to report on refugees. She also toted back a bag of Saddam Hussein souvenir watches and SCUD missile earrings for her colleagues. In 10 years, her accordion-like passport has 45 visa stamps from different nations.
Her book, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance was a paperback best-seller in 1995. The Brooklyn resident is currently president of the National Association of Science Writers.
I'm basically the perfect reader for this book, as I'm really interested in global health, and already felt going in that Garrett had performed an important public service in writing this book (as it helped to bring issues of public health into the foreground when it was published). I am also already truly alarmed by many of the issues that Garrett tackles.
But this book is long, rambling, and kind of painful to read. I get that the point is to make the reader understand that she's not talking about one disaster, but rather a global failure of which each disaster is mounting evidence. Even so I wonder if it would have been better split into a few better edited volumes: one about the American health care system, one about the crumbling public health structure in the USSR, and maybe a third focusing on developing world outbreaks including the Ebola and plague incidents she begins with. This would also have given her more room to get into some of the nuances of each case.
By taking on so much, Garrett ends up giving short shrift to all: at a certain point it just read like a never-ending string of variations on the sentence, "frazzled/harried/depressed leading expert says situation is tragic/deeply frightening/far worse than people realize/about to get even more terrible etc". The various experts and patients are introduced and dropped again so rapidly that I eventually gave up on trying to feel a human connection to them, which perhaps also made her writing hard to engage with.
Even though I agree with about 98% of what she's written and believe the subject matter is important, I couldn't get excited about this book.
I have a great deal of respect for Laurie Garrett's work. She is an incredibly talented journalist who has sounded the alarm on numerous public health crises. This book helped to raise awareness about a number of emerging public health issues and is generally very readable. That being said, it needed a good editor. The editing is, generally, incredibly sloppy. Quotes are repeated, large sections of paragraphs are repeated, and sections do not always flow. I was really psyched to read this book and found the poor editing to be a huge distraction. It's not Garrett's fault-- it's the publisher's, but be aware of this if you read the book-- you're not having deja vu--you probably DID read the same sentence a few pages back.
A chilling account of the collapse of public health throughout the world, and the potential ramifications for the future of the human race. Garrett is a first-rate journalist, and this book reads like a detective story--fast-paced, dramatic, full of action and suspense--while at the same time sticking closely to the facts and conclusions rendered by the best professionals in the field. A moving book and a call to action; I've been a card-carrying member of Medecins sans Frontieres since the day I finished reading it.
I purchased this book years ago, but didn't read it until now. When Garrett's book "The Coming Plague" was first published in the early 1990's, I checked it out of the library, and I was fascinated by her re-telling of how the CDC "cowboy" scientists of the 1950's, 1960's and on up decades were sent all over the world to determine what was causing outbreaks of epidemics that had no names but were killing hundreds if not thousands of people: The what, the why, the how. I don't read a lot of non-fiction, and even less scientific based non-fiction, but "The Coming Plague" just fascinated me. One of the things that really stuck in my mind was her statement (paraphrasing) that we are not Island Nations any longer - that travel not only works for people but for viruses, and bacteria, insects, etc. That something that affects one continent/area of the world could easily travel to another area of the world. I bought "Betrayal of Trust" years ago, but I just never got around to reading it. Other things to read.... so fast forward to COVID19/March 16th when I am working remotely from home, and yes, this book on it's dusty shelf .... it just seemed appropriate to start reading it now. In this book, Garrett goes beyond the actual outbreaks of epidemics and talks about how the public health care systems respond to them. And how the lack of funds, and lack of supplies, the corruption of governments/ignorance of governments tie into how a community and or country respond when an epidemic rears its ugly head. All the issues that have been currently happening in regards to lack of supplies, medicines, hospital preparedness (ie - ICU beds to handle a situation) have been issues that have come up before. But governments didn't listen to the warnings of scientists, and spent money elsewhere, because countries that could and should have spent money on public health care ignored the warnings, corrupt countries have never spent on their people, and the rest of the countries just didn't have the funds to put towards public health. The book does not read as well as "The Coming Plague", in my opinion. Other reviewers have stated that the editing of the book is to blame for this and I agree. However, I still think it is an important book, as is "The Coming Plague" and I highly recommend it.
This book really give an understanding about real life case of epidemic diseases. Epidemic diseases usually happens in the third world countries or a country that has several problem politically and economically. I only read first two chapter of the book and several pages from the third chapter but it really gives me many sight about epidemic diseases.
In the first chapter about Yersinia pestis and how people in Surat, India try to manage about it. It was really surprising when the bulbonic plaque or the black death really re-occurred in India and become epidemic. All people start to be crazy about the pest and try to kill all the pest without eventually know about what exactly the main cause of the epidemic, the bacteria who reside inside the gut of the rat flea and obviously not only the rat itself.
In the second chapter, the books describes even more tragic epidemic in Zaire. The Ebola virus or what local people called as 'landa-landa'. The actual main causes about the epidemic is not because of the highly contagiousness of the virus but mostly due to lack of medical facility in the entire community. If we trace back it really due to bad government and corruption everywhere that let the money for medical facility gone to the white-collar pocket. The second chapter also describes how actually WHO deals with the new emerge disease. It needed coordination with different country which has high-technology facility (Laboratory with BSL4) so that the research about the main cause of the disease still can be held without harming the nearby community and also the researcher itself.
This book is highly recommended for people who wants to know about epidemiology of disease and how to control it. It gives you a broad idea that epidemiology is not only try to solve the problem by curing the disease but more importantly is to halt the spread of the disease and how to build herd immunity in the community.
Overall a good book, however in the end it is not as global as suggested but more on the US public health system. Heard it using audible with a awful narrator; such a shame for such a good book. I am glad I also had the real book
After reading Garrett's "The Coming Plague" (one of my favorite books), this one was a long slog through a thick tome. But worth it. Conclusion? We're toast!
Borrowed a copy from the Upper Hudson Library System, but it had been read so much it fell apart. Later this year I'd like to borrow a copy or buy one.
I heard Laurie Garrett on the radio talking about how a simulation of a flu epidemic in NYC would overwhelm every bed in every hospital all the way upstate, necessitating treating people at home. She said it would be like a Hurricane Katrina hitting every major city at once.
At the time I heard her on the radio, I was a few days from delivering my son and I wondered how many people were as prepared as I was for the possibility that they would have their babies at home because there was no hospital to go to. Fortunately, things worked out fine for us, but I kept thinking about the women who delivered their babies on overpasses and other non-ideal places in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina ... eek!
This book was extremely difficult to read in that the crisis she describes seems almost hopeless. I had read her book, The Coming Plague and it was scary in point out our lack of preparation and the dwindling supply of money and support given by our then Republican government.
I am hopeful that now that we have chosen Barack Obama that the greatness of our country will rise and we, as a people, will decide to again subscribe to the notion that a nation is only as great as the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens, not its CEOs. That's a paraphrase and I don't quite remember who said it, but I believe in it.
Back to the book, it is very factual and I hope many people read it and and that we do not fail the test of will. We must support health of all people everywhere for moral reasons and to protect us as well.
If you want to understand: 1. Why defunding public health was one of the worst mistakes almost every country has made, 2. Why the US and Russia have slid backwards despite having such strong economies and 3. Why we were completely unprepared for COVID-19 and continue to be completely unprepared for future epidemics... Read this book! Each chapter could be a book in itself, but it reads quickly and is easy to follow. I recommend it to public health professionals to better understand the absurdity of the political economy of our field. Those who want to better understand public health will get an I formed overview by reading this book. Finally- if you are a non-believer in universal healthcare or doesn’t really understand what public health really is: READ THIS BOOK.
Garrett discusses how non-potable water, environmental pollutants, preventable infections and diseases, and other ills of mankind which effective public health practices can prevent are factors in economic collapse. Sounds very dull. It ain't. It's frustrating, heartbreaking to the point of madness. Clean air, clean water and enough food, facilities for personal hygiene and treatment of disease--this is not complicated stuff to provide. Yet thousands of people die every day from lack of these simple things.
It is a wake up call to read this book. When you look at the global picture of health-- really the leading indicator of successful societies-- there are many interconnected themes. And America is not a leader anymore in global health let alone national health. As Ms. Garrett had outline in The Coming Plague, don't think that you can hide away and avoid what is happening around the globe. Any disease is a plane ride away. And, with all the changes to ecosystems, poor public health management, past bad practices and no government support, the bugs are coming for you unless something changes!
I read this book while I was waiting for "The Coming Plague" to be returned to the library and it was worth it. Her research is in-depth and informative. This, in retrospect, was more informative and interesting than the book I was looking for. This is why I love libraries, I would have simply bought my intended book and not found this.
Best book ever. Dense, very dense. It took me lots of months to soak it in bit by bit. I bet I could read it again and still be just as engrossed. It reads like a thriller, but it's history, science, health care, and world politics all in one --and relevant today, even though it's an old book! I wish more people would read it.
A compelling and rather depressing series of articles on the state of global public health. Not a pretty picture. But Laurie Garrett is an insightful and engaging writer, so it's fascinating, if disheartening.
This was one of the first books I read about public health. I was totally hooked. A real page turner. The chapter about tracing ebola back to patient one was fascinating.
Laurie Garrett is amazing. If you have even a remote interest in health issues, read this and The Coming Plague. She puts things in great context, with a lot of detail.
Garrett is a great storyteller and makes this a quick read. I enjoyed meeting her back in 2001 when she guest lectured at one of my classes at Columbia.
This book is massive. It is divided into 5 sections that span a large swath of time and space, each written a bit differently. The common thread between them is how governments and their institutions have failed to fulfill their public health obligations, which feels too vague to hold together a book of this size.
The sections are almost too different from each other to review together.
The Soviet section is a bit interesting, but ultimately feels kind of irrelevant and outdated. If anything, their system (and its problems) is presented as the opposite pole to the US system (and its problems), so maybe it serves as a precaution against over-correction. It ends up landing a bit like vague middle-of-the-road-ism when the contrast is made.
The bio-warfare chapter has the sense of a tacked-on bit from the remaining material that the author had. It ties in fairly poorly with the rest of the book and probably couldn't stand on its own anyway.
The second chapter on Ebola could have been a thrilling and very interesting book in itself. There is enough length and detail in there to stand as its own piece.
The section on the US (primarily) and the west is the best of the book. There is an internally-consistent thinking in this section that is beautifully analogized to the story of Hygieia and Panacea. The author catalogues the history of American public health through the lens of this conflict and its complex refraction. There are many very interesting questions that arise from this section.
This section really should have been the entire book with a single unifying thesis that could have been explored and expanded. Most of the rest of the book, while full of information and stories, seems pretty excessive. For a massive book like this, that really matters.
Overall a thoroughly researched book. It uncovers the stories about failure of and calls out the key elements of public health in great detail. I learnt a lot about the big public health disasters. I also got to know about the reports written by international health organizations on public health and it was good to learn about the thinking and journey of public health. I also watched Hot Zone (Nat Geo series) and Outbreak (movie) after reading about them in the book.
However, I found it a difficult book to finish. A few reasons: (1) Too many facts and complex numbers hitting you for almost 600 pages were difficult to assimilate, synthesize, and put in perspective. Epilogue was a big help though
(2) Editing of the book could have been better. I found instances where pronouns came up before introducing the noun it was referring to, the timeline kept going back and forth between pages and the transition was not supported by sentences, and so on
(3) I found the chapter on Russia extremely difficult to get through. Too many stories and situations were crammed into one section and timeline of different matters was difficult to keep up with. Apparently there was a certain political time (holding back to prevent spoilers) during which public health was falling apart all across
(4) Some judgements seemed to lack evidence e.g. ...Country XYZ prioritized to invest in nuclear program than public health. We don't know whether the budget was siphoned off from public health budget or the nuclear budget was disproportionately more than public health by design. It seemed there was a bias (every author has) towards non-US countries investing in nuclear power. I had to read the articles and material mentioned in the Notes to get more details of the context in which that comment was made. It slowed me down
Finally, it would have been good to have a public health success story as well, something that tells that - see, this is where public health or at least some aspects of it worked relatively well.
To sum up, while it was difficult to finish, I will recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about public health through real stories than a text book.
The 1965 Medicare act healthcare program under Social Security administration under party hospitals were allowed to designate a third agency or non-governmental organization to oversee their budgets and negotiate with Social Security- generally this was the Blues - accounting and profiteering reign - ongoing spiral of Health costs begins
Public hospitals and nonprofits - succumb to private cost generating hospitals
Market forces, the AMA, drug companies, will dominate Individual care v. Collective Health -Asklepios had two daughters: Panakeia was a healer finding cures & Hygeia taught people how to live and prevent disease Public health equals social justice Aristotle said if there are differences that are overwhelming you either get rid of those disparities or get rid of democracy Poverty kills babies Aging defenses feel more frequently when confronted with microbial diseases that is why influenza and pneumonia how often lethal infections in elders To build trust there must be a sense of community
While this book was written decades ago, its themes ring true today.
Couple of important quotes -- (pg 478) "Globalization opened America to fantastic new economic and cultural horizons, but left her vulnerable to a higher order of microbial threat..."
(pg 426) "... lacking medical insurance was bad for one's health. In the study, insurance status was a more powerful predictor of life expectancy than social class... a lack of health insurance is causally related to a higher mortality rate, because of decreased access and lower quality of care. ... The finding support a policy imperative for universal health insurance to reduce both financial barriers to care and the risk of premature mortality." (citation #563)
(pg 13) "In the days of Biggs & Pasteur public health was local, manageable enough if backed with sufficient political support. Its infrastructure provided, first and foremost, communitywide prophylaxis against disease.
Now the community is an entire world...
Public health needs to be--must be--global prevention."
A rough read between what is a hell of a lot of summarizing of upsetting information, parsing out what has improved/worsened since this was published 20 years ago, skimming whole sections covered in books I've already read, and Garrett's blind spot with regards to race. The Indian Reorganization Act (you might know it as the Wheeler-Howard Act or the Indian New Deal)? Not actually a great thing for Native American Indian health. The fact that some of the doctors and nurses who worked on the Tuskegee Study were African American? Pretty damn irrelevant and does not magically make the Tuskegee Study not a racist massacre. Garrett mentions racially driven gaps in health indicators often enough, but the moments she actually digs beyond the numbers are...uh, telling.