An urgent, shocking, and prophetic warning about the inevitable next global pandemic—and what we need to do to prepare—by the authors of the New York Times bestseller "Deadliest Enemy." The Covid-19 pandemic has been the most devastating natural disaster experienced by the world in the last century. Millions of people have been affected, many with lasting disabilities; over 7 million have died worldwide; millions more have lost their jobs, seeking basic resources; businesses across the country have failed; social and racial inequalities have come to light and worsened; and the global economy has collapsed.
And although the Covid-19 pandemic has been terrifying, we must understand that it is not actually "the Big One"—the pandemic haunting the nightmares of epidemiologists and public health officials everywhere, a catastrophe capable of changing lives worldwide at every substantive level—unless we are properly prepared to face it.
In the book "The Big One," founding director of the Infectious Disease Research and Policy Center, Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, and renowned author Mark Olshaker examine lessons from past pandemics, show how the United States and other countries failed to implement these lessons and the new science in combating Covid-19, and look to the future, projecting how the next pandemics could unfold and strategies to address them.
"The Big One" is a comprehensive, compelling, and absolutely necessary wake-up call and reality check from a disease detective who has been on the front lines of epidemic research, was among the first to classify Covid-19 as a pandemic, and has continually been correct and precise regarding coronavirus impacts. This book strips away myths, misinformation, and desires—such as our ability to prevent the deadly airborne pandemic—from the narrative. Instead, it offers a recipe for surviving such a disaster with our social order and lives intact. Failure to act could make Covid-19's destruction seem small in comparison.
This book is about the battle against humanity, arrogance versus humility, high visibility versus dreams that can turn into nightmares—and what we can do in an ideal world versus what we must do in the world we all live in.
