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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
An amazing analysis of how much went wrong and how much could have gone right in our pandemic response in the US. The clues to what we must do to salvage American society are in this book.
Informative - and maddening - look at our broken health care system, the long history of the politicization of the CDC, and the heroic people who tried to save us from ourselves.
Have you ever heard of Charity Dean? No? Then stop what you're doing right now and go buy this book.
This is an incredible book that everyone in the US should read. It discusses how the Public Health system is terribly broken, and the reasons for the failures and successes during the COVID pandemic. It explains how the CDC went from maverick institution to one only good for research papers. And it talks about how relatively "rogue" health officers and non-governmental people had the most to do with any level of success that the US had in dealing with the current pandemic. It even helped to give me a more positive opinion of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan.
Again, everyone needs to read this book.
This is an incredible book that everyone in the US should read. It discusses how the Public Health system is terribly broken, and the reasons for the failures and successes during the COVID pandemic. It explains how the CDC went from maverick institution to one only good for research papers. And it talks about how relatively "rogue" health officers and non-governmental people had the most to do with any level of success that the US had in dealing with the current pandemic. It even helped to give me a more positive opinion of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan.
Again, everyone needs to read this book.
An amazing, insightful, and compelling account of how the US fumbled the pandemic response and some interesting historic context explaining why the CDC has become a crippled political organization unable to act
This book is well-written, informative, and so very timely. I learned so much about public health officials, how to deal with pandemics, how the government let us down at multiple levels, and how there are heroes out there fighting to protect us. I highly recommend this book to people who are interested in knowing more about Covid, and about the US government.
I don't read much nonfiction, but this book intrigued me because (like Charity Dean) I have always been interested in diseases and epidemiology. So, my first reaction to this book is that it was fascinating. I loved reading about all of the weird things these people had accomplished in their careers, about how they responded to and gathered data on covid, and how they all worked together.
Where this book lost me was its one-sided portrayal of the doctors and scientists that it profiled and followed. I get that it's a book, it is under no obligation to remain neutral, but regardless, I didn't always love the story it was telling.
Take Charity Dean, the public health officer who is one of the main people interviewed for this book, for example. She is very clearly extremely smart and capable, however, both she herself and the author act shocked every time someone higher up than her (in particular, the CDC) disagree with her on something. I'm not denying that the CDC did a lot wrong in its pandemic response, they certainly did, but to act like there weren't legitimate reasons for their more cautious approach is unfair. Hindsight is 20/20, and protocols exist for a reason.
Similar issues emerged for me when the book detailed Charity's conflict with her boss, Sonia Angell. There was an absolutely bizarre implication that Sonia didn't deserve her position because her experience was in chronic illness (not infectious disease) and because lots of her research had focused on eliminating racism in medicine, and because Sonia herself is Latina. Whatever Sonia's failures in responding to COVID-19, her past research and qualifications are legitimate and important. Being an expert in specifically infectious/pandemic disease was never a requirement for Sonia's position as chief health officer, so I'm not sure where either the author or Charity get off on saying Charity deserved the position more. Secondly, Sonia got no credit or understanding for why her initial pandemic response (which echoed CDC guidance) was what is was. Not once did they consider that Sonia may have been under immense pressure from her own higher ups to stick to CDC guidance, that as a woman of color she might have felt less able to go against the grain than Charity (a white woman) did, or that she simply may have been looking at things from a different perspective.
Obviously Charity and those who pushed for much earlier covid restrictions ultimately ended up being correct, and we would have been better off had we listened to them. What bothered me was just the arrogance, and how the author chose to portray that in a solely positive light.
Anyway, that went on way longer than I meant it to. I would still recommend the book, I think it is very interesting and insightful if you have an interest in public health or pandemics.
Where this book lost me was its one-sided portrayal of the doctors and scientists that it profiled and followed. I get that it's a book, it is under no obligation to remain neutral, but regardless, I didn't always love the story it was telling.
Take Charity Dean, the public health officer who is one of the main people interviewed for this book, for example. She is very clearly extremely smart and capable, however, both she herself and the author act shocked every time someone higher up than her (in particular, the CDC) disagree with her on something. I'm not denying that the CDC did a lot wrong in its pandemic response, they certainly did, but to act like there weren't legitimate reasons for their more cautious approach is unfair. Hindsight is 20/20, and protocols exist for a reason.
Similar issues emerged for me when the book detailed Charity's conflict with her boss, Sonia Angell. There was an absolutely bizarre implication that Sonia didn't deserve her position because her experience was in chronic illness (not infectious disease) and because lots of her research had focused on eliminating racism in medicine, and because Sonia herself is Latina. Whatever Sonia's failures in responding to COVID-19, her past research and qualifications are legitimate and important. Being an expert in specifically infectious/pandemic disease was never a requirement for Sonia's position as chief health officer, so I'm not sure where either the author or Charity get off on saying Charity deserved the position more. Secondly, Sonia got no credit or understanding for why her initial pandemic response (which echoed CDC guidance) was what is was. Not once did they consider that Sonia may have been under immense pressure from her own higher ups to stick to CDC guidance, that as a woman of color she might have felt less able to go against the grain than Charity (a white woman) did, or that she simply may have been looking at things from a different perspective.
Obviously Charity and those who pushed for much earlier covid restrictions ultimately ended up being correct, and we would have been better off had we listened to them. What bothered me was just the arrogance, and how the author chose to portray that in a solely positive light.
Anyway, that went on way longer than I meant it to. I would still recommend the book, I think it is very interesting and insightful if you have an interest in public health or pandemics.
I was highly disappointed by the CDC, who I had seen make missteps over the course of the pandemic, but always gave the benefit of doubt to. I loved the invisible unsung heroes who could have made a much bigger difference, if the establishment had only listened to them.
I love Michael Lewis's books. He can make any subject interesting and seems to find the most fascinating characters to write about. I feel like I need to reread this book, there is so much information about how we mismanaged the pandemic response and what we need to do better that I am sure I didn't capture it all. A great read.