The book I’ve been working on for the past year, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, comes out on May 3. I’m excited to get out there and talk about it, because even though COVID-19 isn’t totally behind us, this is the right time to be discussing how the world can make sure no one ever has to live through anything like this again.
No one who has been through the COVID-19 catastrophe needs to be told why pandemic prevention matters—the death toll and economic losses have been enormous. But investing in the systems needed to keep outbreaks from going global has another benefit: shrinking the gap in health between people in rich countries and poor ones. Virtually everything the world should do to prevent pandemics will also be useful in fighting diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS—and vice versa.
As a Gates Notes Insider, you can get a preview of the book by downloading a free chapter. “Practice, Practice, Practice” is about why the world should be running outbreak simulations—and the fascinating history of previous simulations like Crimson Contagion and Dark Winter. I learned a lot working on the chapter and hope you’ll enjoy it.