An inside account of the fight to contain the world's deadliest
diseases -- and the panic and corruption that make them worse.
Throughout history, humankind's biggest killers have been infectious
diseases: the Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and AIDS alone account for
over one hundred million deaths. We ignore this reality most of the
time, but when a new threat -- Ebola, SARS, Zika, coronavirus -- seems
imminent, we send our best and bravest doctors to contain it. People
like Dr. Ali S. Khan.
In his long career as a public health first responder -- protected by a
thin mask from infected patients, napping under nets to keep out
scorpions, making life-and-death decisions on limited, suspect
information -- Khan has found that rogue microbes will always be a
problem, but outbreaks are often caused by people. We make mistakes,
politicize emergencies, and, too often, fail to imagine the consequences
of our actions.
The Next Pandemic is a firsthand account of disasters like anthrax,
bird flu, and others -- and how we could do more to prevent their
return. It is both a gripping story of our brushes with fate and an
urgent lesson on how we can keep ourselves safe from the inevitable next
pandemic.