"Debora MacKenzie has been reporting on emerging diseases for more than three decades, and she draws on that experience to explain how COVID-19 went from a potentially manageable outbreak to a global pandemic. Offering a compelling history of the most significant recent outbreaks, including SARS, MERS, H1N1, Zika, and Ebola, she gives a crash course in Epidemiology 101--how viruses spread and how pandemics end--and outlines the lessons we failed to learn from each past crisis. In vivid detail, she takes us through the arrival and spread of COVID-19, making clear the steps that governments knew they could have taken to prevent or at least prepare for this. Looking forward, MacKenzie makes a bold, optimistic argument: this pandemic might finally galvanize the world to take viruses seriously."
As I was reading this I kept thinking back to earlier this year when I was diagnosed with Influenza A after the hardy swab test that has been infamous with Covid cases.
I think the greater issue here is women haven't been heard. We are told we're fine when we're suffering. We're not taken seriously when we address our medical issues. We are ignored by those in power.
I have suffered for over 20 years with chronic bronchitis (which I've finally convinced doctors to change from acute), mild asthma, pneumonia. Each and every year you can pencil me in to receive treatment at a local ER in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Each time I'm given a steroid inhaler, antibiotic,and in severe cases as was with the most recent flu I had to get hooked up to IV fluids, EKG, (sinus tachycardia) and have a battery of blood work tests.
Yes, I was told I had HUS (computer generated) according to results but I've never had a consult to discuss results hidden in my online file after visit. I asked about such diagnosis without discussion and was told it was computer generated ( a fatal blood disorder without discussion).
Ok, so I wrote and complained to local hospital after I have been misdiagnosed and treated all these years including raynaud's, severe anemia due to heavy menses, and much more. Yet, never heard response back even after going in for lung testing and being bombarded with negative commentary that I talk too fast among other issues.
Seriously, the problem we see today is the same problem we've had for years. Our voices are being silenced. Can't we hire older professionals who want to treat not using drugs but rather underlying causes with experience and knowledge not book smarts only? I had doctors that were treating me that weren't able to even prescribe a simple emergency inhaler as they didn't complete state requirements for paperwork because they were right out of med school.
I digress, the flu kicked my butt so when I came across this book - I had to read- because I was told once confirmed that's what you got -then the flu can't be covid. But I still wondered as it was during the time frame of uncertainty in this case January 5th.
Now, I read about the bats as carriers along with the birds and chickens and mosquitoes but we can't blame this all on animals or insects can we?
We also know bats are nocturnal animals so when you see one as I did prior to getting the flu from the flu vaccine-then you might want to be protective - because they shouldn't be hissing at you from your back porch in daylight.
Sorry Mr. Bat---
Anyway, we can't have the constant mixed messages, we can't play politics, and we can't fudge numbers on both aisles to fit the circumstances we need.
We have to be transparent, honest, and give the facts and figures in a precise and measured way that's legible and understandable for all ages.
What we have now is people in the highest offices of the land using smoke, mirrors, fog, and projections to gaslight the American public.
This is obviously dangerous and has resulted in less containment and more deaths.
We could've had this virus contained if we united, shut down borders, and placed people over profits.
As I see it nobody cares about the small guy or gal they only care about their stocks, their friends, their rights as Americans to not be impeded by being told -safety first- in wearing masks to protect us all.
The Canadians have no problem following science yet here in America we want our freedoms but that freedom as we learned from war comes with a price.
We are similarly at war today -no not physically-but literally against an unknown enemy and we must win this battle if we want to see tomorrow.
God bless the USA. Please vote!
Thank you to Debora, the pub, NetGalley, and Amazon Kindle for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.
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