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A review by nancyflanagan
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis
5.0
Here's the explanation why I gave a book that might otherwise be four stars an extra star:
We can't write the definitive book about this pandemic yet. As Lewis describes, multiple times, in this pastiche of stories, we're looking at puzzle pieces, and many of those pieces don't fit together. There are stories about the social networks that spread viruses, and novel, effective approaches to epidemiology that were never considered. There are tales about the deadly mix of politics and public health. They're all fascinating--and none of them tells the complete story. We'll still in this thing; it's still scary and devastating.
But this book--exactly like The Fifth Risk--wades into the middle of the crisis, and begins sharing stories about the huge mistakes made early on, things that could easily have been prevented. He goes back as far as the 1976 Swine flu scare, and how it led Ronald Reagan to decide the head of the CDC had to be politically appointed, rather than chosen by peers, for just one example. And Lewis makes the salient point, at the end, that the next pandemic may actually be worse--so what we have learned from mishandling this one ought to result in some significant changes. It most certainly didn't have to be this way.
I'd like to think that Americans--most Americans--understand that. But maybe not. We've been told so often how exceptional we are that some people believe it. The book is full of tidbits like that.
But as a coherent case study? Not so much. We're not ready for that. But the look behind the curtain at all the things experts knew going in, and learned on the fly, was fascinating.
We can't write the definitive book about this pandemic yet. As Lewis describes, multiple times, in this pastiche of stories, we're looking at puzzle pieces, and many of those pieces don't fit together. There are stories about the social networks that spread viruses, and novel, effective approaches to epidemiology that were never considered. There are tales about the deadly mix of politics and public health. They're all fascinating--and none of them tells the complete story. We'll still in this thing; it's still scary and devastating.
But this book--exactly like The Fifth Risk--wades into the middle of the crisis, and begins sharing stories about the huge mistakes made early on, things that could easily have been prevented. He goes back as far as the 1976 Swine flu scare, and how it led Ronald Reagan to decide the head of the CDC had to be politically appointed, rather than chosen by peers, for just one example. And Lewis makes the salient point, at the end, that the next pandemic may actually be worse--so what we have learned from mishandling this one ought to result in some significant changes. It most certainly didn't have to be this way.
I'd like to think that Americans--most Americans--understand that. But maybe not. We've been told so often how exceptional we are that some people believe it. The book is full of tidbits like that.
But as a coherent case study? Not so much. We're not ready for that. But the look behind the curtain at all the things experts knew going in, and learned on the fly, was fascinating.