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A review by wunkymatts
Preventable: The Politics of Pandemics and How to Stop the Next One by Devi Sridhar
4.0
Memory is a funny thing, isn't it? COVID is still so recent, so fresh and (most concerningly) possibly not over. And yet reading again about the early days of 2020 reminded me how different things are now and just exactly what it was that we went through.
Shridhar takes on a vast and complex subject matter with enormous confidence. Some of the chapters were interesting from a scientific point of view. These were facts and processes that I didn't know and it was fascinating to learn about them. There is such a wealth of information that I imagine she could have written a while series of books. I very much admire the way she examined and contrasted competing theories and took the honest but difficult step of admitting time and time again that there is no 'one' right answer. It was a welcome tonic after being subject to the ridiculous bawling of the British gutter press and the infantilisation peddled by our politicians.
The book pulls no punches. Shridhar lays down in black and white how political decisions cost lives and economies. This is not always easy to read, but this is by no means a hopeless book. Every chapter is infused with reasonable, workable solutions to the problems we faced.
At times this book is very dense. Even with my background in primary care nursing and public health there are some very big and complex ideas, but Shridhar never assumes the reader won't understand them and explains them well. This is one of the books greatest strengths. The other is the clear eyed view it takes. We have been in the middle of this thing for so long it takes an act of will to stand back, to try to understand. This book helped me do that.
Shridhar takes on a vast and complex subject matter with enormous confidence. Some of the chapters were interesting from a scientific point of view. These were facts and processes that I didn't know and it was fascinating to learn about them. There is such a wealth of information that I imagine she could have written a while series of books. I very much admire the way she examined and contrasted competing theories and took the honest but difficult step of admitting time and time again that there is no 'one' right answer. It was a welcome tonic after being subject to the ridiculous bawling of the British gutter press and the infantilisation peddled by our politicians.
The book pulls no punches. Shridhar lays down in black and white how political decisions cost lives and economies. This is not always easy to read, but this is by no means a hopeless book. Every chapter is infused with reasonable, workable solutions to the problems we faced.
At times this book is very dense. Even with my background in primary care nursing and public health there are some very big and complex ideas, but Shridhar never assumes the reader won't understand them and explains them well. This is one of the books greatest strengths. The other is the clear eyed view it takes. We have been in the middle of this thing for so long it takes an act of will to stand back, to try to understand. This book helped me do that.