Preventing the Next Pandemic

It’s not too early to learn the lessons of COVID

This is the first book I could finish since COVID. It’s not the first book I thought I wanted to read, especially after our family got COVID. It’s a painful topic I’d rather quickly forget and move on from, like the rest of us.

But veteran science writer Debora Mackenzie’s book isn’t about the illness as much as it addresses the systems that allow outbreaks to flourish unchecked.

I found it fascinating and ultimately empowering to understand the “why” behind pandemics — especially since we’re likely to have another one soon unless we address the underlying factors.

According to the author, virus outbreaks are increasing due to deforestation/ encroachment on wildlife, global travel, climate change that promotes pathogen-carrying wildlife and insect migration, factory farming with human-to-animal contact (especially chickens and pigs), and cutbacks in infectious disease research.

These are all things that scientists have been warning about for years — especially as it relates to another flu outbreak. We’ve seen plenty of “near-miss” pandemics like SARS, MERS, Ebola, Zika, H1N1 and many others that should make us pay attention.