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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
This was a great political and pandemic thriller. Lewis succeeds as a narrator by maintaining the dramatic tension through holding the possibility of an alternative history as possible if the characters can just succeed to influence policy.
The story mainly follows the group of doctors that were created under Pres. Bush and dismissed by Pres. Trump. Lewis gives context to this group I knew nothing about, even though they were often and vaguely mentioned group in the news. Charity Dean and Carter Mecher are the main heroes. The San Francisco lab was interesting. While reading, I felt like the movie script was already made. I also appreciated the book focuses on pre-COVID issues and stays away from rehashing Trump’s COVID ignorance.
A couple takeaways of substance: the courage to take an unpopular but right policy decision is described well, the CDC is a great reporting organization but too timid to set any pandemic policy, the experience fallacy is profound, and the debunking of one idea in Barry’s book on the 1918 flu pandemic were all fascinating and the connection between schools and virus spread and the public intolerance with any social distancing. Premonition also makes a profound point about the problems of not having any meaningful and connected system of public health in the United States.
I would guess this book will influence a lot of people’s views on policy mishaps during the COVID-19 pandemic as it makes its rounds in paperback and especially if a Big Hurt type movie is made.
The story mainly follows the group of doctors that were created under Pres. Bush and dismissed by Pres. Trump. Lewis gives context to this group I knew nothing about, even though they were often and vaguely mentioned group in the news. Charity Dean and Carter Mecher are the main heroes. The San Francisco lab was interesting. While reading, I felt like the movie script was already made. I also appreciated the book focuses on pre-COVID issues and stays away from rehashing Trump’s COVID ignorance.
A couple takeaways of substance: the courage to take an unpopular but right policy decision is described well, the CDC is a great reporting organization but too timid to set any pandemic policy, the experience fallacy is profound, and the debunking of one idea in Barry’s book on the 1918 flu pandemic were all fascinating and the connection between schools and virus spread and the public intolerance with any social distancing. Premonition also makes a profound point about the problems of not having any meaningful and connected system of public health in the United States.
I would guess this book will influence a lot of people’s views on policy mishaps during the COVID-19 pandemic as it makes its rounds in paperback and especially if a Big Hurt type movie is made.
This book stayed in my to-read shelf for a while as I was contemplating whether I was ready to dig into it or whether I needed more time to process the evolution of the COVID pandemic before. I'm glad I waited a bit but I am also really happy I decided to read the book. While I wasn't a big fan of the writing style, it was mind opening to see some of the different forces going on behind the scenes and the challenges of the health and political system to efficiently approach public health threats like a global pandemic.
Super interesting. It’s the behind-the-scenes story of why covid played out the way it did due to the public health response in the U.S. Lewis is a great storyteller. (Reading this book gave me a brief resurgence of covid dreams, reader be warned.)
I wish I had words to give the book and the people it speaks of all the credit it is due. We have good people in this country who try to do the right thing.
This book starts with beginning. President GW Bush reading a book of the 1918 flu pandemic and setting the wheels in motion for the US to develop a pandemic plan. People who were assigned to help never let go. They noticed the changes in China and began their watch. Over time they recruited others to help where they could. Federal officials would eventually join their calls, push them to do the bold, but refused to do it themselves. The crippling of public health directors. The fragile health system. The non-existent stock pile. The CDC crippled by poor political leadership (started by Reagan) and inability to take any action. At the end I hope we learn from this and not doom to repeat ourselves.
This book starts with beginning. President GW Bush reading a book of the 1918 flu pandemic and setting the wheels in motion for the US to develop a pandemic plan. People who were assigned to help never let go. They noticed the changes in China and began their watch. Over time they recruited others to help where they could. Federal officials would eventually join their calls, push them to do the bold, but refused to do it themselves. The crippling of public health directors. The fragile health system. The non-existent stock pile. The CDC crippled by poor political leadership (started by Reagan) and inability to take any action. At the end I hope we learn from this and not doom to repeat ourselves.
The author does a good job explaining why the U.S. response to COVID-19 was so terrible. We have a patchwork of public health offices that all have reason to act cowardly. We don’t fund the public health offices enough either. Politics interferes at every level.
I love nonfiction that reads like a novel, which is exactly what this book was for me. Cannot recommend it enough!
Masterfully written by Michael Lewis, as always. With an intriguing and diverse set of main characters, this book tells the prequel to the COVID pandemic and, with devastating evidence, demonstrates how the US public health should have been more prepared. This is a must-read for those interested in historical knowledge of COVID-19, the US' public health systems, the general science of fighting disease, and the US bureaucracy.
This had some interesting information about pandemic planning in the early 2000s, under President George W. Bush, of which I was unaware. Overall, however, it seemed narrow in its perspective on what happened--or failed to happen--in America's early response to COVID. Additionally, I felt it was perhaps not sufficiently critical of the people who were central to the development and implementation of the pandemic plan; as a piece of investigative journalism, this did not seem properly balanced in its discussion, which makes me question how thoroughly researched it actually was. The only other book by Michael Lewis I've read is The Big Short, which is an abundance of fascinating information and research. In comparison, The Premonition falls far short.