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COVID-19: The Pandemic that Never Should Have Happened and How to Stop the Next One
Over the last 30 years of epidemics and pandemics, we learned nearly every lesson needed to stop this coronavirus outbreak in its tracks. We heeded almost none of them. The result is a pandemic on a scale never before seen in our lifetimes. In this captivating, authoritative, and eye-opening book, science journalist Debora MacKenzie lays out the full story of how and why it happened: the previous viruses that should have prepared us, the shocking public health failures that paved the way, the failure to contain the outbreak, and most importantly, what we must do to prevent future pandemics.
Debora MacKenzie has been reporting on emerging diseases for more than three decades, and she draws on that experience to explain how COVID-19 went from a potentially manageable outbreak to a global pandemic. Offering a compelling history of the most significant recent outbreaks, including SARS, MERS, H1N1, Zika, and Ebola, she gives a crash course in Epidemiology 101--how viruses spread and how pandemics end--and outlines the lessons we failed to learn from each past crisis. In vivid detail, she takes us through the arrival and spread of COVID-19, making clear the steps that governments knew they could have taken to prevent or at least prepare for this. Looking forward, MacKenzie makes a bold, optimistic argument: this pandemic might finally galvanize the world to take viruses seriously. Fighting this pandemic and preventing the next one will take political action of all kinds, globally, from governments, the scientific community, and individuals--but it is possible.
No one has yet brought together our knowledge of COVID-19 in a comprehensive, informative, and accessible way. But that story can already be told, and Debora MacKenzie's urgent telling is required reading for these times and beyond. It is too early to say where the COVID-19 pandemic will go, but it is past time to talk about what went wrong and how we can do better.
Debora MacKenzie has been reporting on emerging diseases for more than three decades, and she draws on that experience to explain how COVID-19 went from a potentially manageable outbreak to a global pandemic. Offering a compelling history of the most significant recent outbreaks, including SARS, MERS, H1N1, Zika, and Ebola, she gives a crash course in Epidemiology 101--how viruses spread and how pandemics end--and outlines the lessons we failed to learn from each past crisis. In vivid detail, she takes us through the arrival and spread of COVID-19, making clear the steps that governments knew they could have taken to prevent or at least prepare for this. Looking forward, MacKenzie makes a bold, optimistic argument: this pandemic might finally galvanize the world to take viruses seriously. Fighting this pandemic and preventing the next one will take political action of all kinds, globally, from governments, the scientific community, and individuals--but it is possible.
No one has yet brought together our knowledge of COVID-19 in a comprehensive, informative, and accessible way. But that story can already be told, and Debora MacKenzie's urgent telling is required reading for these times and beyond. It is too early to say where the COVID-19 pandemic will go, but it is past time to talk about what went wrong and how we can do better.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published July 14, 2020
167 people are currently reading
1272 people want to read
About the author
Debora MacKenzie
6 books14 followersDebora MacKenzie has been covering emerging diseases for more than 30 years as a science journalist for outlets like New Scientist magazine. She has been reporting on COVID-19 from the start, and she was among the first journalists to suggest that it could become a pandemic. From SARs to rabies and Ebola to AIDs, she's been on the frontline in reporting on how pandemics form, why they spread, and how to stop them throughout her career. In addition to infectious disease, she also specializes in reporting on the science of complexity and social organization. In 2010, she won the American Society for Microbiology Public Communication Award. Before becoming a journalist, she worked as a biomedical researcher.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 148 reviews
March 20, 2021
In early 2020 we began hearing on the news alerts of a new virus originating in China. This hadn’t been the first time, and many brushed it off. I told my husband something seemed strange about this virus. People were in a panic in Wuhan, my oldest son was just flying in from L.A., and I was concerned. When I told my husband and some friends that this virus was going to sweep the nation, they laughed at me. It wasn’t a month later that it was in the U.S., and people were starting to lose their lives. Everyone had questions. No one seemed to have answers. Worst of all, we and our governments didn’t do what was required to stop it, and so the virus flourished quickly all around the globe.
Covid-19 brought on a whole new set of stressors for me last year and still now. We’ve all been affected differently. One thing this pandemic most definitely did to me was inspire me to learn more about viruses and virology. This book written by science journalist Debora MacKenzie is just one of the resources I’ve come across that covers Covid-19 from the very beginning stages. My eyes about popped out of my head when I read about how this virus really isn’t ‘new’ at all. Where did it come from? Why couldn’t we stop it? What can we do to stop pandemics from happening in the future? All of these questions are covered in this book, and there’s so much more. Scads of research went into this book. It’s loaded—extremely informative—with strong writing that’s never over-pompous or boring. I’ll admit that some of what’s written has been written before and wasn’t news to me, but many of the facts and statistics were eye-opening regardless. I was in it from beginning to end.
If you have an interest in viruses, specifically Covid-19, SARS, H1N1, MERS, Zika, and Ebola, grab this book and give it a try. It’s one worth keeping for reference as well.
5*****
Covid-19 brought on a whole new set of stressors for me last year and still now. We’ve all been affected differently. One thing this pandemic most definitely did to me was inspire me to learn more about viruses and virology. This book written by science journalist Debora MacKenzie is just one of the resources I’ve come across that covers Covid-19 from the very beginning stages. My eyes about popped out of my head when I read about how this virus really isn’t ‘new’ at all. Where did it come from? Why couldn’t we stop it? What can we do to stop pandemics from happening in the future? All of these questions are covered in this book, and there’s so much more. Scads of research went into this book. It’s loaded—extremely informative—with strong writing that’s never over-pompous or boring. I’ll admit that some of what’s written has been written before and wasn’t news to me, but many of the facts and statistics were eye-opening regardless. I was in it from beginning to end.
If you have an interest in viruses, specifically Covid-19, SARS, H1N1, MERS, Zika, and Ebola, grab this book and give it a try. It’s one worth keeping for reference as well.
5*****
June 3, 2020
Well-researched scientific, but without science jargon, study on how COVID-19 started, what warnings were ignored, and how we can do better in the future. Because, unfortunately, there are more pandemics in humanity’s future.
Questions and Answers from the Book
1. When did Chinese scientists first talk online about the mysterious pneumonia that evolved into COVID-19? December 30, 2019.
2. Was the virus’ impact foreseen by scientists? Yes, a table top simulation mirroring a COVID-type pandemic was held in in 2019 at John Hopkins involving government and industry leaders. In 2014, the World Bank and the OECD placed a pandemic the top risk above terrorism.
3. Should we just kill all the bats to stop future coronavirus pandemics? This was the number one question that I wanted to answer by reading this book. It seems like such an obvious answer.
91% of coronaviruses “live in bats, making them the world headquarters of coronavirus evolution.” A 2017 research review showed that “bats were still significantly more likely to harbor diseases affecting humans than any other group of mammals.” However, “it is actually hard to catch viruses directly from bats.” Plus, “nearly a quarter of all mammal species are bats.” That’s a lot of killing.
Instead, perhaps, we should try and determine how bats live perfectly well with all these viruses inside them. Bats’ ability to dampen their immune system’s response allows them to live decades with a virus. It also allows them to avoid cancer too. Both of those facts let them live twenty times longer than a similarly-sized mouse. Plus “bats are calculated to do $3.7 million worth of crop protection a year in the US alone” killing predatory insects. They pollinate fruits and plants including the cactus used for tequila.
4. So how is the virus transferred to humans? The author suggests two ways. First, by stacking cages of different live wild animals in China’s wet markets. This allows the virus to move from bats to another animal to humans. Second, by use of bat guano (excrement) in traditional Chinese medicine. Because there is an underlying question, why do these types of viruses usually start to move into humans only in China? Perhaps because of the wet markets and traditional Chinese medicine that are only located and practiced there.
“Science didn’t fail us. The ability of governments to act on it, together, did.”
There were many warnings of the pandemic that went unheeded. Our current worldwide movement of goods and people between countries is definitely helping the spread of disease from country-to-country. Letting the US medical stockpile expire and our hospitals using just-in-time ordering systems, rather than stockpiling inventory, left us flat-footed as far as PPE when the pandemic hit. Hopefully, we will adjust our preparedness and response to better handle future pandemics.
If you found the questions and answers above interesting (and believe me they are only the tip of the iceberg of knowledge within the book, COVID-19), you will love this book as much as I did. 5 stars and one of my favorite science books this year!
Thanks to Hachette Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
Questions and Answers from the Book
1. When did Chinese scientists first talk online about the mysterious pneumonia that evolved into COVID-19? December 30, 2019.
2. Was the virus’ impact foreseen by scientists? Yes, a table top simulation mirroring a COVID-type pandemic was held in in 2019 at John Hopkins involving government and industry leaders. In 2014, the World Bank and the OECD placed a pandemic the top risk above terrorism.
3. Should we just kill all the bats to stop future coronavirus pandemics? This was the number one question that I wanted to answer by reading this book. It seems like such an obvious answer.
91% of coronaviruses “live in bats, making them the world headquarters of coronavirus evolution.” A 2017 research review showed that “bats were still significantly more likely to harbor diseases affecting humans than any other group of mammals.” However, “it is actually hard to catch viruses directly from bats.” Plus, “nearly a quarter of all mammal species are bats.” That’s a lot of killing.
Instead, perhaps, we should try and determine how bats live perfectly well with all these viruses inside them. Bats’ ability to dampen their immune system’s response allows them to live decades with a virus. It also allows them to avoid cancer too. Both of those facts let them live twenty times longer than a similarly-sized mouse. Plus “bats are calculated to do $3.7 million worth of crop protection a year in the US alone” killing predatory insects. They pollinate fruits and plants including the cactus used for tequila.
4. So how is the virus transferred to humans? The author suggests two ways. First, by stacking cages of different live wild animals in China’s wet markets. This allows the virus to move from bats to another animal to humans. Second, by use of bat guano (excrement) in traditional Chinese medicine. Because there is an underlying question, why do these types of viruses usually start to move into humans only in China? Perhaps because of the wet markets and traditional Chinese medicine that are only located and practiced there.
“Science didn’t fail us. The ability of governments to act on it, together, did.”
There were many warnings of the pandemic that went unheeded. Our current worldwide movement of goods and people between countries is definitely helping the spread of disease from country-to-country. Letting the US medical stockpile expire and our hospitals using just-in-time ordering systems, rather than stockpiling inventory, left us flat-footed as far as PPE when the pandemic hit. Hopefully, we will adjust our preparedness and response to better handle future pandemics.
If you found the questions and answers above interesting (and believe me they are only the tip of the iceberg of knowledge within the book, COVID-19), you will love this book as much as I did. 5 stars and one of my favorite science books this year!
Thanks to Hachette Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
September 17, 2021
I've read A LOT of books on pandemics this year, but I think this one was the clearest on the current state of affairs and was really useful in explaining: 1) why it was obvious to a lot of people that Covid was going to be a problem, 2) explaining why bat viruses are unique even in comparison to other viruses that jump from animals, 3) a reminder that this really is the warm-up, 4) separating a lot of fact from fiction -- I even found corrections of things I'd read in other science books recently [regarding contagiousness versus deadliness], and 5) explaining the predicted course of this and other viruses through mutations. Those last two struck a lot of fear in my heart.
December 18, 2020
Atenție⚠️
Carte interzisă ipohondricilor 🚫
Când am văzut această apariție, eram sceptică, deoarece mi se părea o tentativă de a face bani pe un fenomen care ne terorizează. Cât mă bucur că m-am înșelat.
Cred că nu voi greși dacă voi afirma că acest volum este una dintre cele mai bune analize asupra pandemiei de COVID-19 pe înțelesul tuturor.
Debora Mackenzie este jurnalist american, specializat în analiza sănătății publice, cu experiență de câteva decenii în domeniu. Implicarea sa pro-activă în urmărirea firului problemei se resimte în fiecare propoziție și trebuie să recunosc că rodul muncii sale m-a șocat.
Țin să menționez doar câteva puncte inedite și concluzii cu care am rămas după lectură:
1. Covid-19 nu este un virus nou. Despre familia coronavirusurilor se știa de prin anii 2000.
2. OMS este o instituție impotentă și care de câteva decenii spune clar că îi sunt legate mâinile. Ei pot face doar recomandări statelor, acestea din urmă hotărând scenariul după care acționează.
3. De prin anii 1990 există o listă cu viruși și bacterii periculoase. Sunt un top 10. După explicațiile citite, reiese că acest co-vid nu e răul cel mai mare.
4. Problemele noastre au apărut și din cauza faptului că nu investim în pregătirea specialiștilor în epidemiologie, or în cazul unei pandemii ei sunt vitali.
Apropo, să nu credeți că tot volumul e despre Covid-19. Sunt o groază de analize cu referință la epidemii din trecut și scenarii deja traversate.
Sincer, aș dărui această carte fiecărui sceptic. Cred că e un cadou de maximă necesitate în aceste vremuri tulburi.
#StămAcasăȘiCitim #FataCuCartea #CitimPentruSchimbare
Carte interzisă ipohondricilor 🚫
Când am văzut această apariție, eram sceptică, deoarece mi se părea o tentativă de a face bani pe un fenomen care ne terorizează. Cât mă bucur că m-am înșelat.
Cred că nu voi greși dacă voi afirma că acest volum este una dintre cele mai bune analize asupra pandemiei de COVID-19 pe înțelesul tuturor.
Debora Mackenzie este jurnalist american, specializat în analiza sănătății publice, cu experiență de câteva decenii în domeniu. Implicarea sa pro-activă în urmărirea firului problemei se resimte în fiecare propoziție și trebuie să recunosc că rodul muncii sale m-a șocat.
Țin să menționez doar câteva puncte inedite și concluzii cu care am rămas după lectură:
1. Covid-19 nu este un virus nou. Despre familia coronavirusurilor se știa de prin anii 2000.
2. OMS este o instituție impotentă și care de câteva decenii spune clar că îi sunt legate mâinile. Ei pot face doar recomandări statelor, acestea din urmă hotărând scenariul după care acționează.
3. De prin anii 1990 există o listă cu viruși și bacterii periculoase. Sunt un top 10. După explicațiile citite, reiese că acest co-vid nu e răul cel mai mare.
4. Problemele noastre au apărut și din cauza faptului că nu investim în pregătirea specialiștilor în epidemiologie, or în cazul unei pandemii ei sunt vitali.
Apropo, să nu credeți că tot volumul e despre Covid-19. Sunt o groază de analize cu referință la epidemii din trecut și scenarii deja traversate.
Sincer, aș dărui această carte fiecărui sceptic. Cred că e un cadou de maximă necesitate în aceste vremuri tulburi.
#StămAcasăȘiCitim #FataCuCartea #CitimPentruSchimbare
September 8, 2020
There are two words that should never appear in the same sentence in regards to global pandemics: “civilization-ending” and “inevitable”. If those two words don’t strike the fear of God in you, I’m not sure what will.
Many more terrifying sentences, facts, and statistics were included in Debora MacKenzie’s book “Covid-19: The Pandemic That Never Should Have Happened And How To Stop The Next One”.
Here’s another frightening sentence: “If we’re not ready for the pandemic we can see coming, how can we be ready for the ones we don’t? (p. 140)”
Here’s something I didn’t know going into this book: Covid-19 didn’t just “appear” on the scene in December 2019. Virologists and scientists who study this stuff have known about this disease since 2013. They’ve known that this pandemic would happen.
Why, you most likely would ask, didn’t they warn us?
Here’s the kicker: They did. Countless times. Nearly every government in every country in the world was warned about this disease years ago. They did nothing.
How’s that for terrifying sentences?
The problem is that scientists, while worried about Covid-19 (which is not its official name, by the way. “Covid-19” is simply short for “coronavirus disease” and the “19” simply refers to the year in which it broke. It’s real name is SARS-CoV-2, for “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2”, which is basically the sequel to SARS 1, an outbreak that occurred in 2002 in Asia.), were actually expecting another pandemic from a familiar virus: influenza. The coming influenza pandemic (not an “if” but a “when”) is predicted to be roughly ten times worse than Covid-19. Yeah, we’re talking Stephen King’s “The Stand”. Scientists just don’t know when it will happen. It could be five years from now, or it could be five weeks from now. It’s a crapshoot.
Another problem is that nearly every first-world government who should be making plans for this inevitability has either re-prioritized, de-prioritized, or completely defunded any and all health organization that could do anything about it. This is why we faced a major lack of basic personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical equipment back in March. Fuck toilet paper, we barely had enough hand sanitizer and facemasks. Because the fuckwads who run our governments didn’t think to stockpile this stuff.
MacKenzie’s book is bleak, but she tries desperately to end on a hopeful note. She seems to think that Covid-19 will teach us all a lesson about priorities, that instead of more fighter jets and tanks, we should be building more factories that are set up to create vaccines. This, of course, is assuming that countries will share the vaccine knowledge and not horde it for profit, because it would be extraordinarily bad if that were to happen. This is where that “civilzation-ending” sentence came up.
Personally, I think we’re doomed. I don’t say that flippantly, because I have a six-year-old daughter that I would love to see grow up, and it scares me that our species has evolved to this point only to be wiped out because some people refuse to wear facemasks for political reasons.
Many more terrifying sentences, facts, and statistics were included in Debora MacKenzie’s book “Covid-19: The Pandemic That Never Should Have Happened And How To Stop The Next One”.
Here’s another frightening sentence: “If we’re not ready for the pandemic we can see coming, how can we be ready for the ones we don’t? (p. 140)”
Here’s something I didn’t know going into this book: Covid-19 didn’t just “appear” on the scene in December 2019. Virologists and scientists who study this stuff have known about this disease since 2013. They’ve known that this pandemic would happen.
Why, you most likely would ask, didn’t they warn us?
Here’s the kicker: They did. Countless times. Nearly every government in every country in the world was warned about this disease years ago. They did nothing.
How’s that for terrifying sentences?
The problem is that scientists, while worried about Covid-19 (which is not its official name, by the way. “Covid-19” is simply short for “coronavirus disease” and the “19” simply refers to the year in which it broke. It’s real name is SARS-CoV-2, for “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2”, which is basically the sequel to SARS 1, an outbreak that occurred in 2002 in Asia.), were actually expecting another pandemic from a familiar virus: influenza. The coming influenza pandemic (not an “if” but a “when”) is predicted to be roughly ten times worse than Covid-19. Yeah, we’re talking Stephen King’s “The Stand”. Scientists just don’t know when it will happen. It could be five years from now, or it could be five weeks from now. It’s a crapshoot.
Another problem is that nearly every first-world government who should be making plans for this inevitability has either re-prioritized, de-prioritized, or completely defunded any and all health organization that could do anything about it. This is why we faced a major lack of basic personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical equipment back in March. Fuck toilet paper, we barely had enough hand sanitizer and facemasks. Because the fuckwads who run our governments didn’t think to stockpile this stuff.
MacKenzie’s book is bleak, but she tries desperately to end on a hopeful note. She seems to think that Covid-19 will teach us all a lesson about priorities, that instead of more fighter jets and tanks, we should be building more factories that are set up to create vaccines. This, of course, is assuming that countries will share the vaccine knowledge and not horde it for profit, because it would be extraordinarily bad if that were to happen. This is where that “civilzation-ending” sentence came up.
Personally, I think we’re doomed. I don’t say that flippantly, because I have a six-year-old daughter that I would love to see grow up, and it scares me that our species has evolved to this point only to be wiped out because some people refuse to wear facemasks for political reasons.
August 16, 2020
Solid four-star book, about COVID in the light of pandemics in general and warnings from the medical and public health worlds about how a pandemic like this was waiting to happen.
Not a five-star, as it didn't have as much depth as might have been possible, even with a first write of science history on this. That said, I did learn about Nipah and other viruses that are "out there," and also not necessarily in China. I did think, what if the Southeastern US (Atlantic side of Appalachia is growing fairly quickly in population, has relatively mild, and humid climate, has bats plus CAFO poultry and hogs) became an interspecies viral breeding reservoir.
The biggest takeaways are in the last chapter.
1. Modern globalization is efficient ... but also fragile, and all major countries of the world have failed to address this.
2. Virus do NOT necessarily reduce their lethality when becoming pandemic. Those that do, do NOT necessarily quickly reduce their lethality.
3. A COVID vaccine, per evidence from poultry vaccines, could increase COVID-19's lethality for those not vaccinated or otherwise immune.
Not a five-star, as it didn't have as much depth as might have been possible, even with a first write of science history on this. That said, I did learn about Nipah and other viruses that are "out there," and also not necessarily in China. I did think, what if the Southeastern US (Atlantic side of Appalachia is growing fairly quickly in population, has relatively mild, and humid climate, has bats plus CAFO poultry and hogs) became an interspecies viral breeding reservoir.
The biggest takeaways are in the last chapter.
1. Modern globalization is efficient ... but also fragile, and all major countries of the world have failed to address this.
2. Virus do NOT necessarily reduce their lethality when becoming pandemic. Those that do, do NOT necessarily quickly reduce their lethality.
3. A COVID vaccine, per evidence from poultry vaccines, could increase COVID-19's lethality for those not vaccinated or otherwise immune.
December 28, 2020
Išties knyga patiko. Autorė jau kelis dešimtmečius aprašinėja pasaulyje kylančias pandemijas žurnale "New Scientist". Yra rašiusi ir apie Koronos viruso grėsmes, dar gerokai iki jo virsmo į Covid-19. Minusas, kad autorė naudojasi tik Covid-19 pirmos bangos informacija.
Ir kas gi man patiko:
- Detaliai aprašyta Covid-19 istorijos pradžia nuo pat 2019 m lapkričio;
- Aprašyti kitų virusų grėsmės, tarp jų ir Nipos viruso;
- Išsklaidė iliuziją, kad pasaulis kaip sudėtinga sistema yra stabilus (beje, net nemaniau, kad tokią turiu :) );
- Išsklaidė dar vieną iliuziją, kad dabar pasaulis pasimokė ir bus geriau pasiruošęs kitai pandemijai;
- Nudžiugino, kad dabartinę pandemiją sukėlė ne koks nors baisusis Nipos, o tik Koronos variantas.
Ir kas gi man patiko:
- Detaliai aprašyta Covid-19 istorijos pradžia nuo pat 2019 m lapkričio;
- Aprašyti kitų virusų grėsmės, tarp jų ir Nipos viruso;
- Išsklaidė iliuziją, kad pasaulis kaip sudėtinga sistema yra stabilus (beje, net nemaniau, kad tokią turiu :) );
- Išsklaidė dar vieną iliuziją, kad dabar pasaulis pasimokė ir bus geriau pasiruošęs kitai pandemijai;
- Nudžiugino, kad dabartinę pandemiją sukėlė ne koks nors baisusis Nipos, o tik Koronos variantas.
May 22, 2021
On WHO
The author talks about reforming the WHO. There are various treaties against stockpiling of chemical and biological weapons but there is no such treaty worldwide to stop the spread of the virus. Weapons are stockpiled to be used in future but the virus is eventually going to spread to everyone's home.
China delayed alarming WHO during SARS in 2002. China did not inform the WHO about human to human transmission. WHO could not do anything because they can only enter a country with the latter's permission. And no country in question grants permission. They fear that this would be eventually a threat to foreign investment. But, like Indian PM Narendra Modi said, "Jaan hai to Jahaan hai" (If you have the life, you have the world), we need to act globally and behave like a big family.
What is racism and what is accountability in calling out the origin of the source of the virus?
Those who blame Chinese dietary habits for the cause of coronavirus does a great disservice towards reforming them. What we can seek only is accountability. The accountability should not be monetary, it is asking everyone to set up a robust pandemic alarming system in every country. Rich nations can take the lead and can help poor nations as well. When MERS was first detected, scientists immediately shared what they knew about the virus with their European counterparts. When SARS Cov 2 was first found in January, the world was not informed about the human to human transmission nature of the virus. The information system needs to be transparent and WHO needs to play a greater role in this. Calling Chinese dietary habits the sole reason for the outbreak of the virus is wrong. But what is not wrong is to call this coronavirus as Wuhan coronavirus.
MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Nipah is a village in Malaysia. There is a new Delhi virus. There is a Japanese Encephalitis. Why can't we call it Wuhan Coronavirus (like Wion News does)? To hold the country accountable is not racism but a sense of justice for the people who died due to the Wuhan Coronavirus. Sadly, WHO succumbed to Chinese pressure.
How capitalism failed the pharmacy world and their fight against coronavirus?
The research money for coronavirus dried out in 2006 itself because capitalist pharma companies thought that coronavirus won't come again and putting money into this research won't be an economically wise decision. So, after Wuhan coronavirus, government and private players are coming together to develop a vaccine that poses an immediate threat"
Why we are going to see more of such pandemic unless we learn our lesson?
Deforestation leads to the loss of habitat of bats. Global warming changing the breeding patterns of mosquitoes. All of this leading to the outbreak of diseases. We are going to see this more in future eventually leading to a pandemic like situation.
I am hopeful a thorough lesson shall be learnt on the global front. Reforming WHO, uniform nomenclature for the virus and pandemic and accountability of the countries are the immediate problems that need to be addressed.
The author talks about reforming the WHO. There are various treaties against stockpiling of chemical and biological weapons but there is no such treaty worldwide to stop the spread of the virus. Weapons are stockpiled to be used in future but the virus is eventually going to spread to everyone's home.
China delayed alarming WHO during SARS in 2002. China did not inform the WHO about human to human transmission. WHO could not do anything because they can only enter a country with the latter's permission. And no country in question grants permission. They fear that this would be eventually a threat to foreign investment. But, like Indian PM Narendra Modi said, "Jaan hai to Jahaan hai" (If you have the life, you have the world), we need to act globally and behave like a big family.
What is racism and what is accountability in calling out the origin of the source of the virus?
Those who blame Chinese dietary habits for the cause of coronavirus does a great disservice towards reforming them. What we can seek only is accountability. The accountability should not be monetary, it is asking everyone to set up a robust pandemic alarming system in every country. Rich nations can take the lead and can help poor nations as well. When MERS was first detected, scientists immediately shared what they knew about the virus with their European counterparts. When SARS Cov 2 was first found in January, the world was not informed about the human to human transmission nature of the virus. The information system needs to be transparent and WHO needs to play a greater role in this. Calling Chinese dietary habits the sole reason for the outbreak of the virus is wrong. But what is not wrong is to call this coronavirus as Wuhan coronavirus.
MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Nipah is a village in Malaysia. There is a new Delhi virus. There is a Japanese Encephalitis. Why can't we call it Wuhan Coronavirus (like Wion News does)? To hold the country accountable is not racism but a sense of justice for the people who died due to the Wuhan Coronavirus. Sadly, WHO succumbed to Chinese pressure.
How capitalism failed the pharmacy world and their fight against coronavirus?
The research money for coronavirus dried out in 2006 itself because capitalist pharma companies thought that coronavirus won't come again and putting money into this research won't be an economically wise decision. So, after Wuhan coronavirus, government and private players are coming together to develop a vaccine that poses an immediate threat"
Why we are going to see more of such pandemic unless we learn our lesson?
Deforestation leads to the loss of habitat of bats. Global warming changing the breeding patterns of mosquitoes. All of this leading to the outbreak of diseases. We are going to see this more in future eventually leading to a pandemic like situation.
I am hopeful a thorough lesson shall be learnt on the global front. Reforming WHO, uniform nomenclature for the virus and pandemic and accountability of the countries are the immediate problems that need to be addressed.
October 29, 2020
4/10
Shockingly, for many of us most of this will be old news. "Preparation is always cheaper than reparation." Well duh.
I'm not sure if cataloging the entire history of a virus that is not yet 1 year old was the best use of MacKenzie's time, but it filled about a hundred pages, along with her critques of everyone's handling of it, which I'm sure we've all heard. I suppose its good for posterity or whatever. Then she goes on to compare this virus to all other novel corona or respiratory viruses such as Sars, Mers, H1N1, Ebola and other infectious diseases. After that, it does begin to get interesting however, as apparently 91% of these types of virus have common roots in bat transmission. Moreover, the common line that as a disease increases in virility it decreases in deadliness is not necessarily true except on the extreme ends (it kills you before you can spread it). She failed to elaborate on this, or much else interesting honestly, so I'm left with questions.
Ultimately she spends most of her time benefiting from being an early writer of the book on Covid, and tells us how we could have avoided it, but has no new advice for what to do differently going forward. She does recommend more funding for the WHO, and surveillance and tracking of emerging viruses, but that's hardly new. This was fine, but hardly informative. I guess I'll have to wait a few more months for someone to 'write the book' on Covid.
Here's another gem “The world is networked, and it takes a network to run a network.”
Shockingly, for many of us most of this will be old news. "Preparation is always cheaper than reparation." Well duh.
I'm not sure if cataloging the entire history of a virus that is not yet 1 year old was the best use of MacKenzie's time, but it filled about a hundred pages, along with her critques of everyone's handling of it, which I'm sure we've all heard. I suppose its good for posterity or whatever. Then she goes on to compare this virus to all other novel corona or respiratory viruses such as Sars, Mers, H1N1, Ebola and other infectious diseases. After that, it does begin to get interesting however, as apparently 91% of these types of virus have common roots in bat transmission. Moreover, the common line that as a disease increases in virility it decreases in deadliness is not necessarily true except on the extreme ends (it kills you before you can spread it). She failed to elaborate on this, or much else interesting honestly, so I'm left with questions.
Ultimately she spends most of her time benefiting from being an early writer of the book on Covid, and tells us how we could have avoided it, but has no new advice for what to do differently going forward. She does recommend more funding for the WHO, and surveillance and tracking of emerging viruses, but that's hardly new. This was fine, but hardly informative. I guess I'll have to wait a few more months for someone to 'write the book' on Covid.
Here's another gem “The world is networked, and it takes a network to run a network.”
July 2, 2021
Šiai knygai nereikia net žodžių...
July 22, 2023
book #61 of 2023 reading challenge
Reading prompt : a book about COVID-19
Book rating : 4 stars
Audiobook rating : 5 stars
“Every disaster movie starts with someone ignoring a scientist.”
Debora MacKenzie has been reporting on emerging diseases for more than three decades. In COVID-19: The Pandemic that Never Should Have Happened and How to Stop the Next One she draws on that experience to explain how COVID-19 went from a potentially manageable outbreak to a global pandemic.
Offering a compelling history of the most significant recent outbreaks, including SARS, MERS, H1N1, Zika, and Ebola, she gives a crash course in Epidemiology 101--how viruses spread and how pandemics end--and outlines the lessons we failed to learn from each past crisis.
In vivid detail, she takes us through the arrival and spread of COVID-19, making clear the steps that governments knew they could have taken to prevent or at least prepare for this. Looking forward, MacKenzie makes a bold, optimistic argument: this pandemic might finally galvanize the world to take viruses seriously. Fighting this pandemic and preventing the next one will take political action of all kinds, globally, from governments, the scientific community, and individuals--but it is possible.
No one has yet brought together our knowledge of COVID-19 in a comprehensive, informative, and accessible way. But that story can already be told, and Debora MacKenzie's urgent telling is required reading for these times and beyond. It is past time to talk about what went wrong and how we can do better when next one comes.
“The fact that the world is a complex system helps explain how this pandemic happened. First, it means our system has a management problem. People tend to see things in a simple linear way. That’s not a criticism—we can’t usually control anything but a few, simple, direct interactions within our complex social system. So faced with a problem, those are the solutions on offer. We cannot always anticipate how the rest of the complex system will impinge.”
Mackenzie makes a number of points which I found quite important and would like to enumerate
* WHO didn't want to scare the people so it didn't announce pandemic sooner and it was too late for lot many countries but then the governments did not take the necessary actions that were required to contain the virus. Timely response and making it public information is vital in containing the virus.
*Mackenzie explains quite well why it's so difficult to make vaccines or develop medicines before the pandemic happens but she advices to make the necessary changes in health policy and the GDP spent on health services, although sounds like practical solution but I and everyone who will read the book knows for sure it is not going to happen but it won't be Mackenzie's fault, it will be the governments and politicians who will be responsible.
* She claims that killing wildlife or engaging with wildlife can lead to virus making the jump so we have to avoid it. Deforestation can be a reason for the same. “As species disappear under the onslaught of deforestation or other ecosystem destruction, they at least take their pathogens with them. But in degraded ecosystems, the remaining animals can also carry more pathogens than they might in healthier surroundings, because they are stressed or hungry, and germs take advantage.”
*Mackenzie proves through making the numerous points throughout the book that our world is global, our risks are global too so should be our solutions. If china had announced what was going on even earlier the pandemic would have happened and I agree with the point. The scientists already knew and had warned about the virus. I had read an article about a variety of viruses in bats and other wild animals just sitting dormant like a ticking bomb waiting to make that jump. And it made that jump in the form of COVID-19 and we lost millions of lives.
*In China , bat faeces is used as part of medicine and she urges to stop it as even if claims say that dried faeces can hardly contain live virus there are chances also the collectors can encounter live virus and can still make the jump human to human and result ultimately in pandemic. perhaps using bat feces to treat eye disorders is one practice we might consider letting go of. This is not because it’s feces—indeed, Western medicine is now learning uses for that long known in China—but because of what we now know about bat viruses. The Chinese people asking for that particular remedy to be taken out of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and traditional Chinese medicine shops have a point. There are safer ways to get vitamin A.”
* Surveillance and response go hand in hand so it is important that not just scientists and doctors but governments do what they are supposed to when it comes to public health. Health workers didn’t have enough protective gear and ended up sick or in quarantine. Insurance rules meant people initially couldn’t afford to get tested. For weeks, they couldn’t get tests in any case because of problems with one test at the US CDC in Atlanta. Employees with no paid vacation came in to work, hoping it was just flu. The virus spread earlier and farther than surveillance systems could detect, partly due to years of cuts to public health.”
“Science didn’t actually fail us. The ability of governments to act on it, together, did.”
* Individuals should not have to choose between spreading pandemic and providing for their families. we have to start preparing for pandemic in the form of medical resources on the global level but also at the individual state level. “Homer-Dixon says increasing complexity makes societies more resilient only up to a point. Connections between villages might mean one comes to the other’s aid in an attack. But as the villages become more tightly coupled, both may suffer when one is attacked. A loose network absorbs shock; a tightly coupled one transmits it. That is happening in the Covid-19 pandemic. Countries go into lockdown; people stop shopping, traveling, and producing; and the effects ricochet through a tightly coupled global economy. The global supply chains of money, materials, people, energy, and component parts that underpin industries falter and break. Airlines go under as they are not set up to weather even a temporary disappearance of travelers. Malaria worsens in Africa as insecticide and antimalarial bed net deliveries falter. Microcredit that underpins small businesses throughout the developing world defaults because payment collectors are locked down, causing ramifications throughout an economy.”
*Respiratory diseases are hard to treat, no one can stop inhaling.
* We need to change the set of ideas about infectious diseases and set up labs in every state so that if any animal to human jump happens we can make it known as soon as it happens.
*"Mothers who listen to the lies of anti-vax campaigners today have never seen how measles, typhoid, and polio can carry off children.” prevention is better than cure so it's no wonder that vaccines are of immense importance in any infectious disease. After all through vaccines we were able to eradicate small pox and yet it is disappointing that lot many people are antivaxxers.
*There's this myth that as pandemic affects and spreads throughout the universe , the virus gets fickle and infection gets mild. Mackenzie dismisses the idea completely and makes a strong point it is other way around.
Her knowledge and data is extensive, her experience shared in the form of the book about pandemics, virus, viral drugs, vaccines is of vital importance in preventing pandemic in the future. I enjoyed the audiobook immensely and would have rated it 5 stars had it not been repetitive as well as advocating WHO throughtout the book. But it doesn't make the book any less important.
Lastly the most important thing to remember Preparation is always cheaper than reparation.”
Reading prompt : a book about COVID-19
Book rating : 4 stars
Audiobook rating : 5 stars
“Every disaster movie starts with someone ignoring a scientist.”
Debora MacKenzie has been reporting on emerging diseases for more than three decades. In COVID-19: The Pandemic that Never Should Have Happened and How to Stop the Next One she draws on that experience to explain how COVID-19 went from a potentially manageable outbreak to a global pandemic.
Offering a compelling history of the most significant recent outbreaks, including SARS, MERS, H1N1, Zika, and Ebola, she gives a crash course in Epidemiology 101--how viruses spread and how pandemics end--and outlines the lessons we failed to learn from each past crisis.
In vivid detail, she takes us through the arrival and spread of COVID-19, making clear the steps that governments knew they could have taken to prevent or at least prepare for this. Looking forward, MacKenzie makes a bold, optimistic argument: this pandemic might finally galvanize the world to take viruses seriously. Fighting this pandemic and preventing the next one will take political action of all kinds, globally, from governments, the scientific community, and individuals--but it is possible.
No one has yet brought together our knowledge of COVID-19 in a comprehensive, informative, and accessible way. But that story can already be told, and Debora MacKenzie's urgent telling is required reading for these times and beyond. It is past time to talk about what went wrong and how we can do better when next one comes.
“The fact that the world is a complex system helps explain how this pandemic happened. First, it means our system has a management problem. People tend to see things in a simple linear way. That’s not a criticism—we can’t usually control anything but a few, simple, direct interactions within our complex social system. So faced with a problem, those are the solutions on offer. We cannot always anticipate how the rest of the complex system will impinge.”
Mackenzie makes a number of points which I found quite important and would like to enumerate
* WHO didn't want to scare the people so it didn't announce pandemic sooner and it was too late for lot many countries but then the governments did not take the necessary actions that were required to contain the virus. Timely response and making it public information is vital in containing the virus.
*Mackenzie explains quite well why it's so difficult to make vaccines or develop medicines before the pandemic happens but she advices to make the necessary changes in health policy and the GDP spent on health services, although sounds like practical solution but I and everyone who will read the book knows for sure it is not going to happen but it won't be Mackenzie's fault, it will be the governments and politicians who will be responsible.
* She claims that killing wildlife or engaging with wildlife can lead to virus making the jump so we have to avoid it. Deforestation can be a reason for the same. “As species disappear under the onslaught of deforestation or other ecosystem destruction, they at least take their pathogens with them. But in degraded ecosystems, the remaining animals can also carry more pathogens than they might in healthier surroundings, because they are stressed or hungry, and germs take advantage.”
*Mackenzie proves through making the numerous points throughout the book that our world is global, our risks are global too so should be our solutions. If china had announced what was going on even earlier the pandemic would have happened and I agree with the point. The scientists already knew and had warned about the virus. I had read an article about a variety of viruses in bats and other wild animals just sitting dormant like a ticking bomb waiting to make that jump. And it made that jump in the form of COVID-19 and we lost millions of lives.
*In China , bat faeces is used as part of medicine and she urges to stop it as even if claims say that dried faeces can hardly contain live virus there are chances also the collectors can encounter live virus and can still make the jump human to human and result ultimately in pandemic. perhaps using bat feces to treat eye disorders is one practice we might consider letting go of. This is not because it’s feces—indeed, Western medicine is now learning uses for that long known in China—but because of what we now know about bat viruses. The Chinese people asking for that particular remedy to be taken out of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and traditional Chinese medicine shops have a point. There are safer ways to get vitamin A.”
* Surveillance and response go hand in hand so it is important that not just scientists and doctors but governments do what they are supposed to when it comes to public health. Health workers didn’t have enough protective gear and ended up sick or in quarantine. Insurance rules meant people initially couldn’t afford to get tested. For weeks, they couldn’t get tests in any case because of problems with one test at the US CDC in Atlanta. Employees with no paid vacation came in to work, hoping it was just flu. The virus spread earlier and farther than surveillance systems could detect, partly due to years of cuts to public health.”
“Science didn’t actually fail us. The ability of governments to act on it, together, did.”
* Individuals should not have to choose between spreading pandemic and providing for their families. we have to start preparing for pandemic in the form of medical resources on the global level but also at the individual state level. “Homer-Dixon says increasing complexity makes societies more resilient only up to a point. Connections between villages might mean one comes to the other’s aid in an attack. But as the villages become more tightly coupled, both may suffer when one is attacked. A loose network absorbs shock; a tightly coupled one transmits it. That is happening in the Covid-19 pandemic. Countries go into lockdown; people stop shopping, traveling, and producing; and the effects ricochet through a tightly coupled global economy. The global supply chains of money, materials, people, energy, and component parts that underpin industries falter and break. Airlines go under as they are not set up to weather even a temporary disappearance of travelers. Malaria worsens in Africa as insecticide and antimalarial bed net deliveries falter. Microcredit that underpins small businesses throughout the developing world defaults because payment collectors are locked down, causing ramifications throughout an economy.”
*Respiratory diseases are hard to treat, no one can stop inhaling.
* We need to change the set of ideas about infectious diseases and set up labs in every state so that if any animal to human jump happens we can make it known as soon as it happens.
*"Mothers who listen to the lies of anti-vax campaigners today have never seen how measles, typhoid, and polio can carry off children.” prevention is better than cure so it's no wonder that vaccines are of immense importance in any infectious disease. After all through vaccines we were able to eradicate small pox and yet it is disappointing that lot many people are antivaxxers.
*There's this myth that as pandemic affects and spreads throughout the universe , the virus gets fickle and infection gets mild. Mackenzie dismisses the idea completely and makes a strong point it is other way around.
Her knowledge and data is extensive, her experience shared in the form of the book about pandemics, virus, viral drugs, vaccines is of vital importance in preventing pandemic in the future. I enjoyed the audiobook immensely and would have rated it 5 stars had it not been repetitive as well as advocating WHO throughtout the book. But it doesn't make the book any less important.
Lastly the most important thing to remember Preparation is always cheaper than reparation.”
July 23, 2020
Yeah, this is a STRONG BOOK. Really appreciate the honesty of how mishandled the virus reporting was initially, and continues to be.
Great book, so much detail. Still ongoing.
4.8/5
Great book, so much detail. Still ongoing.
4.8/5
November 6, 2020
من الكتب المهمة في موضوع كورونا، إلا أن فيه بعض النواقص في مقارنة تجارب الدول في التعامل مع الجائحة وعدم التعرض كثيراً إلى مرض كوفيد ١٩ من ناحية علمية وبحثية.
June 3, 2020
Covid - 19 is credibly insightful and readable. I'm not usually a science reader but this is written in clear and concise language and gives a thorough explanation of what pandemics are as well as what could have been done and what should be done.
I highly recommend it not only for an understanding of what is going on today, but for an overall understanding of viruses and the impact on society.
I highly recommend it not only for an understanding of what is going on today, but for an overall understanding of viruses and the impact on society.
August 27, 2021
عندما تكتب باحترافية في ظل فقر شديد في المعلومات، وفي جو من الدعاوى والتناقضات والتخبطات؛ فأنت حقًا متميز.
هذه ديبورا ماكينزي تحدثنا عن تاريخ الفيروسات التاجية وتعاملنا معها ومع كل الجائحات التي أصابت البشرية ووضعتها في منطقة الخطر؛ من إنفلونزا الطيور والخنازير وسارس وغيرهم. وهي تحدثنا عن كوفيد-19 في وقت مبكر جدًا من ظهوره، فلم تكن تملك ديبورا رفاهية الانتظار للحديث عن الفيروس التاجي المستجد إذ تحتم خطورة الوضع عليها كصحفية متخصصة في الأمراض المعدية أن تعرفنا بما وراء الفيروس المستجد وليس بماهيته من حيث هو فيروس بيولوجي.
الحقيقة موضوعات كتابها ممتعة للغاية، ردت على من ينكرون حقيقة الفيروس علميًا وأجابت عن قضية كون الخفافيش مهددة لحياتنا البشرية أم لا، ورصدت الأخطاء التي كان بإمكاننا تجنبها مع كوفيد-19 كي لا يتفشى ذلك التفشي المرعب، والكثير من الأمور المهمة جدًا.
أول ما بدأت في قراءة الكتاب تصورت أن الكتاب سيكون علميًا محضًا، أو أكاديميًا، لكنه أقرب إلى الكتابة الصحفية السلسة لكنه لا يبتعد كثيرًا عن الحقل العلمي؛ لذلك أزعم أنه مناسب للقراءة للجميع حتى لمن لا يفضلون القراءة في العلوم الطبيعية والطب ونحوهما.
هذه ديبورا ماكينزي تحدثنا عن تاريخ الفيروسات التاجية وتعاملنا معها ومع كل الجائحات التي أصابت البشرية ووضعتها في منطقة الخطر؛ من إنفلونزا الطيور والخنازير وسارس وغيرهم. وهي تحدثنا عن كوفيد-19 في وقت مبكر جدًا من ظهوره، فلم تكن تملك ديبورا رفاهية الانتظار للحديث عن الفيروس التاجي المستجد إذ تحتم خطورة الوضع عليها كصحفية متخصصة في الأمراض المعدية أن تعرفنا بما وراء الفيروس المستجد وليس بماهيته من حيث هو فيروس بيولوجي.
الحقيقة موضوعات كتابها ممتعة للغاية، ردت على من ينكرون حقيقة الفيروس علميًا وأجابت عن قضية كون الخفافيش مهددة لحياتنا البشرية أم لا، ورصدت الأخطاء التي كان بإمكاننا تجنبها مع كوفيد-19 كي لا يتفشى ذلك التفشي المرعب، والكثير من الأمور المهمة جدًا.
أول ما بدأت في قراءة الكتاب تصورت أن الكتاب سيكون علميًا محضًا، أو أكاديميًا، لكنه أقرب إلى الكتابة الصحفية السلسة لكنه لا يبتعد كثيرًا عن الحقل العلمي؛ لذلك أزعم أنه مناسب للقراءة للجميع حتى لمن لا يفضلون القراءة في العلوم الطبيعية والطب ونحوهما.
December 9, 2020
Deborah Mackenzie eine Wissenschaftsjournalistin rekaputiliert die Ereignisse, die zur Pandemie geführt haben. Von der Vertuschung der chinesischen Regierung bis zur verspäteten Einsicht, dass es sich bei Sars-Cov-2 sich um ein ernstes Virus handelt. Doch als über 5 Millionen Wuhaner Bewohner zum Lunar Fest China & weltweit verreist sind, war es schon zu spät und das Virus hatte mehrere Zentren erreicht.
Können wir daraus lernen? Hätten wir nicht schon aus SARS nach 2003 lernen müssen? Oder durch Hendraausbrüche? Ebolaausbruch? Oder durch HIV?
Was ist es, was diese Ausbrüche begünstigt und was muss geschehen, dass wir weltweit besser vorbereitet sind? Denn eine Sache wissen Infektionsforscher seit langem! Dort draussen wartet nur das nächste Supervirus auf die evolutionäre Anpassung, dass es durch Mensch-zu-Mensch Übertragung zu einer Pandemie wird! Und unsere globalisierten Strukturen machen uns sehr vulnerabel für die Auswirkungen, die diese Infektionskrankheiten mit sich bringen. Denn was passiert wenn die nächste Pandemie insbesondere die arbeitende Bevölkerung betrifft und eine Lethalität über 10% hat? Reichen die Pandemie Pläne aus? Oder sollte doch mehr in die Entwicklung von Impfstoffen, Medikamenten und Antibiotika investiert werden (ja, definitiv).
Dieses Buch ist ein must-read für diejenigen, die unsere Zukunft verstehen möchten.
Können wir daraus lernen? Hätten wir nicht schon aus SARS nach 2003 lernen müssen? Oder durch Hendraausbrüche? Ebolaausbruch? Oder durch HIV?
Was ist es, was diese Ausbrüche begünstigt und was muss geschehen, dass wir weltweit besser vorbereitet sind? Denn eine Sache wissen Infektionsforscher seit langem! Dort draussen wartet nur das nächste Supervirus auf die evolutionäre Anpassung, dass es durch Mensch-zu-Mensch Übertragung zu einer Pandemie wird! Und unsere globalisierten Strukturen machen uns sehr vulnerabel für die Auswirkungen, die diese Infektionskrankheiten mit sich bringen. Denn was passiert wenn die nächste Pandemie insbesondere die arbeitende Bevölkerung betrifft und eine Lethalität über 10% hat? Reichen die Pandemie Pläne aus? Oder sollte doch mehr in die Entwicklung von Impfstoffen, Medikamenten und Antibiotika investiert werden (ja, definitiv).
Dieses Buch ist ein must-read für diejenigen, die unsere Zukunft verstehen möchten.
September 25, 2020
Este o carte ușor de citit, cu un limbaj accesibil, gravitînd mai degrabă înspre partea jurnalistică decît cea de expunere științifică. Este excelentă pentru creionarea unui context larg în jurul pandemiei actuale trasînd linia de la evenimentele medicale de mare amploare din trecut. Nu se axează atît de mult pe pandemia actuală (și datorită faptului că e în desfășurare și nu există suficiente date pentru o analiză complet). Este fidelă titlului explicînd mecanismele care dacă ar fi fost puse în mișcare ar fi dus la stoparea coronavirusului și viitoarele pericole epidemiologice care încă ne stau în față.
October 30, 2020
Very interesting. Great research and it's all explained very well
August 6, 2024
DNF — Unfortunately, reading this book became more of a job as I continued. Although the beginning was interesting with details of COVID 19 pandemic & the watchlist WHO has for viruses that can cause pandemics, the later chapters just became repetitive & all over the place.
June 12, 2020
I read this book as a pre-release e-book obtained through NetGalley, provided by the publisher.
This book explains, as concisely as possible, how multiple systems and methods put in place for containing a pandemic or treating victims all failed. It talks about what went right, and how this could have been much worse. It leads the reader to consider what would be best to do to solve these problems before the next pandemic hits. As this was densely-packed with facts, I had to stop reading to consider them. I found the book extremely thought-provoking.
It dispels many misunderstandings of terms currently being bantered about, such as “herd immunity”, “second wave” and beliefs that diseases become less deadly as they spread and time goes on. It touches on issues with vaccines, especially “leaky” vaccines that allow the virus to spread while not causing symptoms, thus select for more virulent viruses.
It also taught me some of the updates with virology and immunology which I did not know, which explain how vaccines are being developed much faster than they were in the past.
This book explains, as concisely as possible, how multiple systems and methods put in place for containing a pandemic or treating victims all failed. It talks about what went right, and how this could have been much worse. It leads the reader to consider what would be best to do to solve these problems before the next pandemic hits. As this was densely-packed with facts, I had to stop reading to consider them. I found the book extremely thought-provoking.
It dispels many misunderstandings of terms currently being bantered about, such as “herd immunity”, “second wave” and beliefs that diseases become less deadly as they spread and time goes on. It touches on issues with vaccines, especially “leaky” vaccines that allow the virus to spread while not causing symptoms, thus select for more virulent viruses.
It also taught me some of the updates with virology and immunology which I did not know, which explain how vaccines are being developed much faster than they were in the past.
June 11, 2021
"1 Could We Have Stopped This Whole Thing at the Start?"
5,5/10
Firstly, the intro is a waste of time. Wow it's bad. The author is just saying a ton of nothing by making claims like "we need to be better prepared", "we need to work together", "we need to learn and do better". Unless you are a 5th grader this stuff is so obvious that you won't learn anything from it.
The first chapter itself is an overview of how the virus started and how China fumbled the ball, by forcing their doctors to keep quiet about it. This is stuff you know already if you have lived through the Covid-19 news. I was hoping for a deeper analysis and professional info. This book is actually more simplified than NYT or Wall Street Journal articles about the topic so there is not much new stuff here. I guess if you read about the pandemic in 2030 such a simple intro is fine enough. But then you may as well watch a PBS documentary on it.
"2 What Are These Emerging Diseases, and Why Are They Emerging?"
6/10
Very basic stuff and a bit unfocused. Not fully sure what the main points are. It's a bit about everything just somewhat focused on where viruses are from.
"3 SARS, MERS—You Can’t Say We Weren’t Warned"
7/10
China lies about SARS and lies about the amount of cases until they invite in WHO to help out, but they still don't let them travel freely. WHO cannot tell the world about the pandemic because they could only do it if the host country allowed it.
This chapter is actually good. Finally the book is going into a proper story and focused on a virus and not info dumps. The SARS epidemic is pretty much a perfect illustration of what went wrong during Covid-19 too and how China lies about their viruses until they can't hide it anymore.
I relistened to it because my Windows restarted to update and I forgot where I was in the book. It's a fine enough chapter. I do dislike the lack of focus. It should have been about the SARS epidemic only. That part was great. The other stuff was less engaging.
"4 Don’t Blame the Bats"
6,5/10
Basic intro to bats and covid and why we shouldn't just kill all bats. They spread around seeds.
"5 Wasn’t the Pandemic Supposed to Be Flu?"
6,5/10
Info about flues overall. Lots of flues introduced. Basically there are so many of some viruses that you can't just make one vaccine to fight enough of them.
"6 So What Do We Do About Disease?"
6,5/10
Uffff… she is citing the notorious Covid-19 Lancet letter to prove that the virus has a natural origin. I've never read a book that aged this fast as the letter is now seen as subjective propaganda. Some of the researchers who signed the letter now say that it very well may have been a lab leak and I think a book discussing both theories would be great for sure. Matt Ridley is currently writing a book about it and it will expand on stuff that these pre-vaccine books missed.
Then there is the issue of having written a book before the vaccine was a thing. There is a whole ton of stuff that goes into Covid-19 vaccine development, distribution and effect. Covid-19 will be remembered for how the vaccine stopped it and opened up countries again. We didn't have to just accept it or keep being locked down. This alone could have been a book by itself and yet it's not even mentioned in this book unlike the lab leak hypothesis that at least gets mentioned in a sentence.
Overall the chapter just feels like a repetition of her prior points about vaccines and research. That's the main issue, it feels like repeated points about overall vaccine research as she is trying to find things to write. Instead it could have explored actual Covid-19 topics had it been written a year later.
"7 Things Fall Apart"
6,5/10
A bit about how viruses have different levels of harm and some just kill off the animals and therefore go extinct. Some are so deadly that the individual animals in a species that can handle them reproduce and survive while others die.
"8 The Pandemic That Never Should Have Happened—And How to Stop the Next One"
6/10
Her main point is that China did a lot of good even though they screw up each pandemic and just let it spread for a while lying to the world. She says that private companies can't solve such issues as you need states to develop vaccines and make a common international organization that will solve all virus problems by sharing info. She is constantly talking about how states and world-wide projects will solve everything and that capitalism is mediocre at all of this. Yet she doesn't notice that she herself has written about how WHO and China, USA and other countries constantly screw up. So it's not at all clear if her plan is that good or even realistic using her very own stories. Sure you can create more huge state agencies and organisations like WHO but it's just one idea among many. She doesn't even get into what private companies can do by themselves outside all of this global thinking. What if the states offered them money to develop vaccines that would never produce a profit? They obviously don't want to spend $10bn on a vaccine that only a million people need. But if a state wanted to spend their money on it they could. This doesn't require any type of huge state agency developing a vaccine. That would be wicked ineffective.
I think many of her points are good, but just very narrow-minded and she doesn't seem to understand or respect the research happening in private companies or what single countries can do in respect to borders, masks and distancing. Her perfect society seems to be a borderless world where info is shared widely in huge UN type groups that basically know everything and have the power to do anything on a planet scale. China is even mentioned as a positive example of what can happen if you act top-down.
I think the main issue is that she wrote this book so early in the pandemic that many of these gray zones are not clearly illustrated. We did see companies develop vaccines. And the whole thing about "daddy WHO please save us" actually went away since the book came out as we discovered that WHO didn't really have much to offer single countries and much of their advice against masks and closed borders actually made the virus spread further. Basically, WHO did a lot of good things. Those things were clear when she wrote the book. But the stuff that we know now makes it clear that WHO was overestimated by most of us back then.
She is also using global warming to illustrate why we need her huge global organization to control the world/the human species. But it's not clear how such an agency would be controlled if it has enormous power.
" My review of the book itself"
Basically the book's main point is that we need a huge multinational agency with huge power controlling countries and stopping pandemica. Furthermore, states should invest many more billions into healthcare and develop vaccines themselves without a focus on profit. She also consistently claims that private companies won't do much about viruses or pandemics.
This book was written very early into Covid-19. It was published in July 2020 so most of the book was written at the start of the main outbreak. Therefore she didn't know about all the mistakes WHO did and their botched China investigation where Wuhan lab data was hidden from them. She didn't know about Western journalists who tried to visit bat caves to take photos, but were stopped by Chinese units telling them that the area was dangerous because of wild elephants.
She also didn't know about the upcoming vaccines developed by private companies. She didn’t know about the many public offices and agencies that had to fire people or admit fault. Some politicians in UK broke the lockdown. The leading pandemic expert for the UK government even visited his married lover during lockdown. Leading to him being forced to quit. All this stuff explains a lot about how we mess up. It’s clearly a book that was written at least 1 year too early.
Basically it's a vague overview of Covid-19. Most chapters and ideas are about how viruses and pandemics work. So if you are looking for a book on specifically Covid-19 you likely will want to skip this one for something newer. 50% of what needed to be said about Covid-19 is not said as the book is just too old.
The book is also very repetitive in how many times it makes exactly the same points. The point about WHO not being able to tell the world about pandemics before 2005, unless the host countries allowed it to, was made maybe 8 times in the book. The point about “a huge multinational public company is needed” was made probably more than 30-40 times. The point about private companies not developing enough vaccines was made 20 or such times. Everything is repeated because what else can you do if you don't have enough Covid-19 info yet?
One thing that illustrates her political leaning and her ideology is her Trump statements. Trump is mentioned by name 6 times. All 6 are attacks on him. That’s fine by itself, but then you don’t have attacks on any other people or politicians. And notice that she is even pointing out negative stuff about Trump unrelated to any health issue like the Iran nuclear deal. The only other things she is as critical about are private companies overall and to some degree China.
“… National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense. All three, wrote Kirchhoff, were underfunded or shut down under the Trump administration. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the pandemic plan written by the Obama administration was largely ignored.“
“Then in April 2020, Donald Trump threatened to withdraw US funding from the WHO, which is 15 percent of the agency’s regular funds.“
“Members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty must declare any uranium or plutonium that can be used for nuclear weapons, prove they haven’t diverted any for weapons, and submit that to verification inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. The IAEA caught Iran cheating twice and imposed an inspections regime that was keeping it from enriching too much uranium—until Donald Trump torpedoed the agreement in 2018.“
Trump is mentioned twice in this example:
“Cambridge psychologist Leor Zmigrod has discovered that people who live in US states and cities with a higher prevalence of diseases you catch from humans—but not diseases you get from animals, like Lyme disease—are more likely to have authoritarian personalities and to have voted for Donald Trump. States with more pathogens also tended to have more laws that restrict minorities, such as LGBTQ people.“
“As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump blamed Latin American immigrants for “tremendous infectious disease.” All the claims were groundless.“
It’s just an issue that a book about Covid-19 has several chapters largely dedicated to her personal concept of a huge WHO-like public company that will save humanity. It’s not really stuff I want her feedback on. But then it’s made worse by the fact that Covid-19 features very little in the book. So those alternative and peripheral findings and ideas are basically what the book is about. It's definitely not an ideal intro to Covid-19 as it only tackles a few main issues. And it's not like the simple explanations will cut it in 10 years when people forget much about Covid-19. By then it would have aged badly. I do think it would have been a fairly strong intro to the pandemic when it was written and maybe even into the late 2020. But nothing more than a strong intro. Now, in June 2021, it feels too weirdly unfocused and lacking. Had I read it just a year later I would have given it 2 stars at most as I would expect at least a chapter on the vaccines. But even now it feels weird to read old news.
It is fairly easy to read/listen to. The audiobook narration is childish and silly, but you can understand most points being made. That's the main selling point here. Besides this there is not much I would recommend here besides the SARS chapter.
5,5/10
Firstly, the intro is a waste of time. Wow it's bad. The author is just saying a ton of nothing by making claims like "we need to be better prepared", "we need to work together", "we need to learn and do better". Unless you are a 5th grader this stuff is so obvious that you won't learn anything from it.
The first chapter itself is an overview of how the virus started and how China fumbled the ball, by forcing their doctors to keep quiet about it. This is stuff you know already if you have lived through the Covid-19 news. I was hoping for a deeper analysis and professional info. This book is actually more simplified than NYT or Wall Street Journal articles about the topic so there is not much new stuff here. I guess if you read about the pandemic in 2030 such a simple intro is fine enough. But then you may as well watch a PBS documentary on it.
"2 What Are These Emerging Diseases, and Why Are They Emerging?"
6/10
Very basic stuff and a bit unfocused. Not fully sure what the main points are. It's a bit about everything just somewhat focused on where viruses are from.
"3 SARS, MERS—You Can’t Say We Weren’t Warned"
7/10
China lies about SARS and lies about the amount of cases until they invite in WHO to help out, but they still don't let them travel freely. WHO cannot tell the world about the pandemic because they could only do it if the host country allowed it.
This chapter is actually good. Finally the book is going into a proper story and focused on a virus and not info dumps. The SARS epidemic is pretty much a perfect illustration of what went wrong during Covid-19 too and how China lies about their viruses until they can't hide it anymore.
I relistened to it because my Windows restarted to update and I forgot where I was in the book. It's a fine enough chapter. I do dislike the lack of focus. It should have been about the SARS epidemic only. That part was great. The other stuff was less engaging.
"4 Don’t Blame the Bats"
6,5/10
Basic intro to bats and covid and why we shouldn't just kill all bats. They spread around seeds.
"5 Wasn’t the Pandemic Supposed to Be Flu?"
6,5/10
Info about flues overall. Lots of flues introduced. Basically there are so many of some viruses that you can't just make one vaccine to fight enough of them.
"6 So What Do We Do About Disease?"
6,5/10
Uffff… she is citing the notorious Covid-19 Lancet letter to prove that the virus has a natural origin. I've never read a book that aged this fast as the letter is now seen as subjective propaganda. Some of the researchers who signed the letter now say that it very well may have been a lab leak and I think a book discussing both theories would be great for sure. Matt Ridley is currently writing a book about it and it will expand on stuff that these pre-vaccine books missed.
Then there is the issue of having written a book before the vaccine was a thing. There is a whole ton of stuff that goes into Covid-19 vaccine development, distribution and effect. Covid-19 will be remembered for how the vaccine stopped it and opened up countries again. We didn't have to just accept it or keep being locked down. This alone could have been a book by itself and yet it's not even mentioned in this book unlike the lab leak hypothesis that at least gets mentioned in a sentence.
Overall the chapter just feels like a repetition of her prior points about vaccines and research. That's the main issue, it feels like repeated points about overall vaccine research as she is trying to find things to write. Instead it could have explored actual Covid-19 topics had it been written a year later.
"7 Things Fall Apart"
6,5/10
A bit about how viruses have different levels of harm and some just kill off the animals and therefore go extinct. Some are so deadly that the individual animals in a species that can handle them reproduce and survive while others die.
"8 The Pandemic That Never Should Have Happened—And How to Stop the Next One"
6/10
Her main point is that China did a lot of good even though they screw up each pandemic and just let it spread for a while lying to the world. She says that private companies can't solve such issues as you need states to develop vaccines and make a common international organization that will solve all virus problems by sharing info. She is constantly talking about how states and world-wide projects will solve everything and that capitalism is mediocre at all of this. Yet she doesn't notice that she herself has written about how WHO and China, USA and other countries constantly screw up. So it's not at all clear if her plan is that good or even realistic using her very own stories. Sure you can create more huge state agencies and organisations like WHO but it's just one idea among many. She doesn't even get into what private companies can do by themselves outside all of this global thinking. What if the states offered them money to develop vaccines that would never produce a profit? They obviously don't want to spend $10bn on a vaccine that only a million people need. But if a state wanted to spend their money on it they could. This doesn't require any type of huge state agency developing a vaccine. That would be wicked ineffective.
I think many of her points are good, but just very narrow-minded and she doesn't seem to understand or respect the research happening in private companies or what single countries can do in respect to borders, masks and distancing. Her perfect society seems to be a borderless world where info is shared widely in huge UN type groups that basically know everything and have the power to do anything on a planet scale. China is even mentioned as a positive example of what can happen if you act top-down.
I think the main issue is that she wrote this book so early in the pandemic that many of these gray zones are not clearly illustrated. We did see companies develop vaccines. And the whole thing about "daddy WHO please save us" actually went away since the book came out as we discovered that WHO didn't really have much to offer single countries and much of their advice against masks and closed borders actually made the virus spread further. Basically, WHO did a lot of good things. Those things were clear when she wrote the book. But the stuff that we know now makes it clear that WHO was overestimated by most of us back then.
She is also using global warming to illustrate why we need her huge global organization to control the world/the human species. But it's not clear how such an agency would be controlled if it has enormous power.
" My review of the book itself"
Basically the book's main point is that we need a huge multinational agency with huge power controlling countries and stopping pandemica. Furthermore, states should invest many more billions into healthcare and develop vaccines themselves without a focus on profit. She also consistently claims that private companies won't do much about viruses or pandemics.
This book was written very early into Covid-19. It was published in July 2020 so most of the book was written at the start of the main outbreak. Therefore she didn't know about all the mistakes WHO did and their botched China investigation where Wuhan lab data was hidden from them. She didn't know about Western journalists who tried to visit bat caves to take photos, but were stopped by Chinese units telling them that the area was dangerous because of wild elephants.
She also didn't know about the upcoming vaccines developed by private companies. She didn’t know about the many public offices and agencies that had to fire people or admit fault. Some politicians in UK broke the lockdown. The leading pandemic expert for the UK government even visited his married lover during lockdown. Leading to him being forced to quit. All this stuff explains a lot about how we mess up. It’s clearly a book that was written at least 1 year too early.
Basically it's a vague overview of Covid-19. Most chapters and ideas are about how viruses and pandemics work. So if you are looking for a book on specifically Covid-19 you likely will want to skip this one for something newer. 50% of what needed to be said about Covid-19 is not said as the book is just too old.
The book is also very repetitive in how many times it makes exactly the same points. The point about WHO not being able to tell the world about pandemics before 2005, unless the host countries allowed it to, was made maybe 8 times in the book. The point about “a huge multinational public company is needed” was made probably more than 30-40 times. The point about private companies not developing enough vaccines was made 20 or such times. Everything is repeated because what else can you do if you don't have enough Covid-19 info yet?
One thing that illustrates her political leaning and her ideology is her Trump statements. Trump is mentioned by name 6 times. All 6 are attacks on him. That’s fine by itself, but then you don’t have attacks on any other people or politicians. And notice that she is even pointing out negative stuff about Trump unrelated to any health issue like the Iran nuclear deal. The only other things she is as critical about are private companies overall and to some degree China.
“… National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense. All three, wrote Kirchhoff, were underfunded or shut down under the Trump administration. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the pandemic plan written by the Obama administration was largely ignored.“
“Then in April 2020, Donald Trump threatened to withdraw US funding from the WHO, which is 15 percent of the agency’s regular funds.“
“Members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty must declare any uranium or plutonium that can be used for nuclear weapons, prove they haven’t diverted any for weapons, and submit that to verification inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. The IAEA caught Iran cheating twice and imposed an inspections regime that was keeping it from enriching too much uranium—until Donald Trump torpedoed the agreement in 2018.“
Trump is mentioned twice in this example:
“Cambridge psychologist Leor Zmigrod has discovered that people who live in US states and cities with a higher prevalence of diseases you catch from humans—but not diseases you get from animals, like Lyme disease—are more likely to have authoritarian personalities and to have voted for Donald Trump. States with more pathogens also tended to have more laws that restrict minorities, such as LGBTQ people.“
“As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump blamed Latin American immigrants for “tremendous infectious disease.” All the claims were groundless.“
It’s just an issue that a book about Covid-19 has several chapters largely dedicated to her personal concept of a huge WHO-like public company that will save humanity. It’s not really stuff I want her feedback on. But then it’s made worse by the fact that Covid-19 features very little in the book. So those alternative and peripheral findings and ideas are basically what the book is about. It's definitely not an ideal intro to Covid-19 as it only tackles a few main issues. And it's not like the simple explanations will cut it in 10 years when people forget much about Covid-19. By then it would have aged badly. I do think it would have been a fairly strong intro to the pandemic when it was written and maybe even into the late 2020. But nothing more than a strong intro. Now, in June 2021, it feels too weirdly unfocused and lacking. Had I read it just a year later I would have given it 2 stars at most as I would expect at least a chapter on the vaccines. But even now it feels weird to read old news.
It is fairly easy to read/listen to. The audiobook narration is childish and silly, but you can understand most points being made. That's the main selling point here. Besides this there is not much I would recommend here besides the SARS chapter.
December 6, 2020
الكتاب يرصد تاريخ الفيروسات ، الفيروس التاجي بشكل خاص وتقاعص الدول والمختبرات عن إيجاد اللقاح والعلاج المناسبين طيلة سنوات طوال ، إضافة لسوء إدارة التعامل معه بجميع انحاء العالم
صراحة المعلومات لم تضف لي شيئا ، لكن السؤال المهم يبقى مشروعا " كيف يمكن تجنب الوباء القادم " ؟؟
# لاتكترث الفيروسات بالحدود أو الهويات أو الايدلوجيات البشرية بل بالخلايا البشرية فحسب والسؤال الآن هل نهتم بعزيمتها بما فيه الكفاية لنوحد قوانا ؟
صراحة المعلومات لم تضف لي شيئا ، لكن السؤال المهم يبقى مشروعا " كيف يمكن تجنب الوباء القادم " ؟؟
# لاتكترث الفيروسات بالحدود أو الهويات أو الايدلوجيات البشرية بل بالخلايا البشرية فحسب والسؤال الآن هل نهتم بعزيمتها بما فيه الكفاية لنوحد قوانا ؟
February 24, 2021
Unscientific. Opinionated. Trying to force that opinion on the readers.
Written before July 2020 (as that is the pub date), and hence outdated.
Could be read as "what people were feeling about the whole thing", if that is your cup-of-tea.
Can't afford to spend my time on this. There are more objective and more information dense books on COVID-19, lessons learned, and what it heralds for the future.
Written before July 2020 (as that is the pub date), and hence outdated.
Could be read as "what people were feeling about the whole thing", if that is your cup-of-tea.
Can't afford to spend my time on this. There are more objective and more information dense books on COVID-19, lessons learned, and what it heralds for the future.
April 21, 2022
I started this book and stopped very quickly.
The author has added herself to the crowd of propagandist who follow the Dr. Fauci narrative which had no basis.
The author has added herself to the crowd of propagandist who follow the Dr. Fauci narrative which had no basis.
December 24, 2020
Pequeña enciclopedia del COVID, que recoge no solo la historia de este virus y sus aspectos médicos, sino que entra en consideraciones incluso geopolíticas hacia el final.
El libro comienza como suponemos que empezaría, contando cómo en noviembre de 2019 se empiezan a descubrir neumonías atípicas en Wuhan. El cerrojazo del gobierno chino era lo esperable, por supuesto. Define las neumonías como secreto de Estado, con lo que puede ejecutar inmediatamente a cualquiera que hable de ellas por "revelar secretos de Estado". Este mensaje, "si seguís hablando de esto os podremos acusar de revelar secretos de Estado con lo que ello conlleva", se lo hace llegar vía chart a varios médicos que en un chat precisamente hablaban del aumento de pacientes con neumonía que estaban observando.
Tras reconocer la existencia del virus, China dice que no es contagioso entre personas, contra toda la evidencia que los médicos estaban detectando en hospitales (familas de 4 contagiados en los que solo uno o dos de ellos habían pasado por Wuhan) , y tras demostrarse que sí que lo es, China hace un confinamiento brutal, que llegó tarde. La autora cuenta muchísimos más detalles de salud pública y un montón de información curiosa.
En los siguientes capítulos recorremos la historia de otros coronavirus famosos que ya nos habían dado varios avisos, como el SARS (2002) y el MERS (2012). La autora nos cuenta cómo sabemos inequívocamente que el virus procede de los murciélagos y no de los pangolines o las civetas (se habían descubierto las mismas secuencias del SARS-COV2, que produce la Covid-19, en colonias de murciélagos en China, hace ya tiempo).
Nos habla de cómo los ecosistemas perdiendo territorio hace que se incremente el contacto entre fauna salvaje y seres humanos, y cómo esto está haciendo aumentar la frecuencia de zoonosis (contagios de animales salvajes a humanos).
También recorremos una historia de la gripe, con sus variantes conocidas (H1N1, H2N3) y menos conocidas (H5N1, H7N7 que afecta a patos, etc) y cómo podemos aprender de los ciclos de la gripe para predecir los ciclos del Covid (y por qué no hay UNA vacuna para la gripe).
Todo el libro es un viaje de descubrimiento. La autora lleva escribiendo sobre epidemiología para New Scientist desde 1995, por lo que ha tenido ocasión de hablar con todos y cada uno de los principales epidemiólogos del mundo, y nos cuenta sus opiniones y visiones del mundo.
Hacia el final del libro la autora dedica un par de capítulos bastante detallados a las sociedades globalizadas y cómo los impactos en las cadenas de transporte se hacen rápidamente globales (el problema de la eficiencia económica es que hay poca redundancia en cadenas de transporte y consumo. SI queremos tener redundancia baja la eficiencia, y nadie está dispuesto a pagar ese coste). También cuenta cómo una ciudad puede pasar de la civilización al caos en tan solo siete días sin suministros. Y los transportistas, los empleados de supermercado, los "curritos" del cableado eléctrico y el transporte de basuras, en general los trabajos más manuales y en media peor remunerados, tienen tendencia a sufrir mayor incidencia que la media en pandemias. Y son la columna vertebral de una sociedad.
El último capítulo es una defensa de la OMS, con sus imperfecciones, y una llamada a que se le asigne más dinero y más atribuciones (la OMS no podía hasta hace poco comunicar al mundo datos sobre un brote epidémico en un país a nos ser que el gobierno de ese mismo país le diera permiso, lo cual hacía bastante inútil su misión. Hay cosas que están cambiando pero la autora argumenta con muchos ejemplos que aún falta mucho más. Trump, por supuesto, amenazó con cortar los fondos a la OMS cuando la OMS dijo que EE.UU. no estaba implementando medidas suficientes de contención).
El libro está MUY bien. Es mi primer audiolibro (lo he oído yendo y viniendo del trabajo en el coche) y me ha dejado claro que no puedo escuchar audiolibros de divulgación porque me pongo muy nervioso cuando no puedo tomar notas/marcar la página y quedarme con la referencia que me interesa. Por lo demás, fantástico. Muy recomendable, junto al magnífico Contagio.
El libro comienza como suponemos que empezaría, contando cómo en noviembre de 2019 se empiezan a descubrir neumonías atípicas en Wuhan. El cerrojazo del gobierno chino era lo esperable, por supuesto. Define las neumonías como secreto de Estado, con lo que puede ejecutar inmediatamente a cualquiera que hable de ellas por "revelar secretos de Estado". Este mensaje, "si seguís hablando de esto os podremos acusar de revelar secretos de Estado con lo que ello conlleva", se lo hace llegar vía chart a varios médicos que en un chat precisamente hablaban del aumento de pacientes con neumonía que estaban observando.
Tras reconocer la existencia del virus, China dice que no es contagioso entre personas, contra toda la evidencia que los médicos estaban detectando en hospitales (familas de 4 contagiados en los que solo uno o dos de ellos habían pasado por Wuhan) , y tras demostrarse que sí que lo es, China hace un confinamiento brutal, que llegó tarde. La autora cuenta muchísimos más detalles de salud pública y un montón de información curiosa.
En los siguientes capítulos recorremos la historia de otros coronavirus famosos que ya nos habían dado varios avisos, como el SARS (2002) y el MERS (2012). La autora nos cuenta cómo sabemos inequívocamente que el virus procede de los murciélagos y no de los pangolines o las civetas (se habían descubierto las mismas secuencias del SARS-COV2, que produce la Covid-19, en colonias de murciélagos en China, hace ya tiempo).
Nos habla de cómo los ecosistemas perdiendo territorio hace que se incremente el contacto entre fauna salvaje y seres humanos, y cómo esto está haciendo aumentar la frecuencia de zoonosis (contagios de animales salvajes a humanos).
También recorremos una historia de la gripe, con sus variantes conocidas (H1N1, H2N3) y menos conocidas (H5N1, H7N7 que afecta a patos, etc) y cómo podemos aprender de los ciclos de la gripe para predecir los ciclos del Covid (y por qué no hay UNA vacuna para la gripe).
Todo el libro es un viaje de descubrimiento. La autora lleva escribiendo sobre epidemiología para New Scientist desde 1995, por lo que ha tenido ocasión de hablar con todos y cada uno de los principales epidemiólogos del mundo, y nos cuenta sus opiniones y visiones del mundo.
Hacia el final del libro la autora dedica un par de capítulos bastante detallados a las sociedades globalizadas y cómo los impactos en las cadenas de transporte se hacen rápidamente globales (el problema de la eficiencia económica es que hay poca redundancia en cadenas de transporte y consumo. SI queremos tener redundancia baja la eficiencia, y nadie está dispuesto a pagar ese coste). También cuenta cómo una ciudad puede pasar de la civilización al caos en tan solo siete días sin suministros. Y los transportistas, los empleados de supermercado, los "curritos" del cableado eléctrico y el transporte de basuras, en general los trabajos más manuales y en media peor remunerados, tienen tendencia a sufrir mayor incidencia que la media en pandemias. Y son la columna vertebral de una sociedad.
El último capítulo es una defensa de la OMS, con sus imperfecciones, y una llamada a que se le asigne más dinero y más atribuciones (la OMS no podía hasta hace poco comunicar al mundo datos sobre un brote epidémico en un país a nos ser que el gobierno de ese mismo país le diera permiso, lo cual hacía bastante inútil su misión. Hay cosas que están cambiando pero la autora argumenta con muchos ejemplos que aún falta mucho más. Trump, por supuesto, amenazó con cortar los fondos a la OMS cuando la OMS dijo que EE.UU. no estaba implementando medidas suficientes de contención).
El libro está MUY bien. Es mi primer audiolibro (lo he oído yendo y viniendo del trabajo en el coche) y me ha dejado claro que no puedo escuchar audiolibros de divulgación porque me pongo muy nervioso cuando no puedo tomar notas/marcar la página y quedarme con la referencia que me interesa. Por lo demás, fantástico. Muy recomendable, junto al magnífico Contagio.
November 30, 2020
Mais que um livro relâmpago de fast food científico, esta obra faz jus àquilo a que a que se propõe, dentro das possibilidades teóricas possíveis do contexto presente da pandemia e do que até aqui é conhecido.
Pandemias passadas como o coronavirus Sars (2003,Guangzhou - letalidade de 10%), Mers(2012, Arábia Saudita) e outras doenças emergentes - Nipah (1998, Malásia Sungai Nipah; 2001, Bangladesh, com origem nos morcegos da fruta até aos porcos que desenvolveram graves inflamações no cérebro - letalidade ronda os 70%; 2018 surto em Kerala, Índia ), Hendra (1994, Austrália. Morcegos da fruta-cavalos-humanos), Ébola (2014), Zica (2007-2016, intermediários - mosquitos Aedes) gripes aviárias (como a H5N1) e estirpes de gripe comum (estirpe dominante de influenza b, H3N2, H1N1 remanescente de 2009) com potencial verdadeiramente pandémico são analisadas, discutidas. Não serviram de aviso. Aquilo que poderia ter sido feito, medidas políticas, sociais e tecnológicas, entraves burocráticos e de soberania nacional são expostos.
Questões de complexidade, globalização, planeamento futuros baseados em melhorias na vigilância, tratados com verificação, aumento do poder interventivo da OMS e redes de cooperação e mútua confiança que poderão parecer utópicos mas são sumamente necessários. Incentivos à investigação não baseadas em lucros com mercado imediato devem ser criados. Consciência ecológica deve ser implantada com a apresentação de factos incortornáveis - como o facto das zoonoses poderem ter a sua raíz rastreada numa excessiva prepotência do homem sobre o ambiente, a desflorestação (que leva os morcegos para mais próximo das populações), a agricultura e pecuária intensivas com vacinações que criam resistência e mutações virais mais letais têm de ser refreadas. O financiamento de associações como o CEPI - Coligação para a inovação na preparação contra epidemias (criado em 2017 em Oslo) não pode ser esquecido. Laboratórios têm de ter todos os protocolos de segurança incólumes e apresentar transparência e possibilidade de verificações esporádicas por entidades externas preparadas para o efeito.
O obscurantismo e a negligência levam a custos humanos e económicos de proporções catastróficas a curto e a longo prazo. Portanto, medidas de prevenção e planos realistas, efetivos e rápidos englobam um custo que poderá ser considerado risível. Parafraseando Bill Gates, devemos estar preparados para pandemias como estamos preparados para as guerras. Preparados de uma forma que não lembre um improviso global mal amanhado, tropeços políticos, sociais e sanitários, como temos visto desde o início da pandemia da Covid 19.
Spoiler alert:
Contras - especulação sobre a real origem da covid 19. A autora dispensa intermediários como civetas ou pangolins. Se bem que se associe o primeiro foco (ou focos) ao mercado húmido de Whuan, MacKenzie acusa antes a utilização popular de fezes secas de morcegos (portadores originais dos coronavirus) na medicina tracional chinesa para o tratamento de problemas oculares.
Pandemias passadas como o coronavirus Sars (2003,Guangzhou - letalidade de 10%), Mers(2012, Arábia Saudita) e outras doenças emergentes - Nipah (1998, Malásia Sungai Nipah; 2001, Bangladesh, com origem nos morcegos da fruta até aos porcos que desenvolveram graves inflamações no cérebro - letalidade ronda os 70%; 2018 surto em Kerala, Índia ), Hendra (1994, Austrália. Morcegos da fruta-cavalos-humanos), Ébola (2014), Zica (2007-2016, intermediários - mosquitos Aedes) gripes aviárias (como a H5N1) e estirpes de gripe comum (estirpe dominante de influenza b, H3N2, H1N1 remanescente de 2009) com potencial verdadeiramente pandémico são analisadas, discutidas. Não serviram de aviso. Aquilo que poderia ter sido feito, medidas políticas, sociais e tecnológicas, entraves burocráticos e de soberania nacional são expostos.
Questões de complexidade, globalização, planeamento futuros baseados em melhorias na vigilância, tratados com verificação, aumento do poder interventivo da OMS e redes de cooperação e mútua confiança que poderão parecer utópicos mas são sumamente necessários. Incentivos à investigação não baseadas em lucros com mercado imediato devem ser criados. Consciência ecológica deve ser implantada com a apresentação de factos incortornáveis - como o facto das zoonoses poderem ter a sua raíz rastreada numa excessiva prepotência do homem sobre o ambiente, a desflorestação (que leva os morcegos para mais próximo das populações), a agricultura e pecuária intensivas com vacinações que criam resistência e mutações virais mais letais têm de ser refreadas. O financiamento de associações como o CEPI - Coligação para a inovação na preparação contra epidemias (criado em 2017 em Oslo) não pode ser esquecido. Laboratórios têm de ter todos os protocolos de segurança incólumes e apresentar transparência e possibilidade de verificações esporádicas por entidades externas preparadas para o efeito.
O obscurantismo e a negligência levam a custos humanos e económicos de proporções catastróficas a curto e a longo prazo. Portanto, medidas de prevenção e planos realistas, efetivos e rápidos englobam um custo que poderá ser considerado risível. Parafraseando Bill Gates, devemos estar preparados para pandemias como estamos preparados para as guerras. Preparados de uma forma que não lembre um improviso global mal amanhado, tropeços políticos, sociais e sanitários, como temos visto desde o início da pandemia da Covid 19.
Spoiler alert:
Contras - especulação sobre a real origem da covid 19. A autora dispensa intermediários como civetas ou pangolins. Se bem que se associe o primeiro foco (ou focos) ao mercado húmido de Whuan, MacKenzie acusa antes a utilização popular de fezes secas de morcegos (portadores originais dos coronavirus) na medicina tracional chinesa para o tratamento de problemas oculares.
December 11, 2020
A book written earlier in the pandemic, but definitely worth a read. A lot of this was over my head, and I admit skipping a bunch, but I did learn a bit too: Scientists have always warned governments about the eventual potential of a flu or virus pandemic, but money was allocated elsewhere. The virus came from bat to human transfer and was not leaked from a lab. Bats are useful to the environment, so killing off the bats is not the solution. Killing off the rain forests where they live, also not a solution because the bats will just fly elsewhere, spreading their viruses to new places. China was slow to recognize what they were dealing with, allowing its citizens to travel and receive visitors during their January holidays, and not reporting correct numbers of cases once they realized what the virus was. And other countries (like the US) did not take measures fast enough to prevent the virus from entering their countries, which we already know. One really interesting thing the author states is that the the flu or virus you first get as a child, is the one you have the most immunity for the rest of your life. (Proven by those who were children during the Spanish Flu.) Finally, there will be more viruses like COVID to come. When? Where? Will we be prepared?
April 17, 2021
This is the first book I could finish since COVID. It's not the first book I thought I wanted to read, but I found it fascinating and ultimately empowering to understand the "why" behind pandemics.
Virus outbreaks are increasing due to deforestation/ encroachment on wildlife, global travel, climate change that promotes pathogen-carrying wildlife and insect migration, factory farming with human-to-animal contact (especially chickens and pigs), and cutbacks in infectious disease research.
So what can we do about it? The book is written by a journalist who has been a science writer for 36 years, and she rightly focuses on the importance of governments and international cooperation to prevent and mitigate future outbreaks.
At the same time, I'd like to read more about what we can do on an individual and local level. Reducing our reliance on factory farming and animal agriculture seems like a logical place to start, for the health of the planet and all of us with "shared catastrophic risk." In other words, we're all in this together.
Virus outbreaks are increasing due to deforestation/ encroachment on wildlife, global travel, climate change that promotes pathogen-carrying wildlife and insect migration, factory farming with human-to-animal contact (especially chickens and pigs), and cutbacks in infectious disease research.
So what can we do about it? The book is written by a journalist who has been a science writer for 36 years, and she rightly focuses on the importance of governments and international cooperation to prevent and mitigate future outbreaks.
At the same time, I'd like to read more about what we can do on an individual and local level. Reducing our reliance on factory farming and animal agriculture seems like a logical place to start, for the health of the planet and all of us with "shared catastrophic risk." In other words, we're all in this together.
December 7, 2020
I was confident that it was too early for a book on the COVID-19 Pandemic, but this book proves me wrong. We know a lot about where the virus came from and how it spread. There are systems in place to prevent pandemics from happening. So the question becomes; how did this Pandemic occur then?
The main problem is the government response. There are attributes of the virus that make it difficult to contain, but we all know about that now. The Chinese Government did and did not learn from the threat of SARS back in 2003. I did not think that SARS was a big deal. Let me explain. First off, all I remember from SARS was the episode on South Park. The book enlightens me in several aspects when it comes to SARS. SARS is more deadly than COVID-19, but it is not as transmittable.
COVID-19 is a bat virus that jumped to humans. The author explains a lot about viruses in this book. It is quite fascinating. I would recommend the book if you can find it.
The main problem is the government response. There are attributes of the virus that make it difficult to contain, but we all know about that now. The Chinese Government did and did not learn from the threat of SARS back in 2003. I did not think that SARS was a big deal. Let me explain. First off, all I remember from SARS was the episode on South Park. The book enlightens me in several aspects when it comes to SARS. SARS is more deadly than COVID-19, but it is not as transmittable.
COVID-19 is a bat virus that jumped to humans. The author explains a lot about viruses in this book. It is quite fascinating. I would recommend the book if you can find it.
July 18, 2022
Wow, what a great book! I’ve been thinking of reading this for a long time but delayed because I thought it would be boring. It is absolutely not. The author is an expert on her topic and so it is fascinating to read. I wish everyone in the world, especially all world leaders, could read this. The book is exactly about what the title says. More deadly viruses will emerge as the world’s population increases and we cause deforestation and we have to get better at stopping it before it goes everywhere.
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