As the renowned epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm recently noted, COVID-19 is the first pandemic to become the leading cause of death in the U.S. in just six weeks since the historic and horrific 1918 influenza. Our team took some time over the past month to read Dr. Osterholm’s book along with another on the 2014 Ebola outbreak and one more on the 1918 flu. Two of the authors, Dr. Osterholm and John M. Barry, teamed up with others to publish their current thinking regarding COVID-19. We came away with a deeper understanding of viruses in general and a broader appreciation of the range of potential economic outcomes in particular.
In this read, the author recounts the deadliest pandemic in history with remarkable thoroughness and readability. This highly entertaining book details the history of American medicine and the tragic consequences of the common refrain… “this was influenza, only influenza.”
Picking up on John M. Barry’s “detective novel” non-fiction style, the author of this read expertly narrates the devastating 2014 Ebola outbreak in Western Africa.
The author caps off a remarkable career in public health with a book that summarizes the most notable infectious diseases facing the world. This 2017 book reaches its maximum effect as it portrays a hypothetical future pandemic that nearly matches today’s COVID-19 headlines.
