By Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis maintains his status as one of the preeminent storytellers in the nonfiction space with The Premonition. With the whole world still living through this pandemic, Lewis peels back the curtains to reveal what was going on behind the scenes to address the outbreak of COVID-19.
“Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios….”
“The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected. A thirteen-year-old girl’s science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control. A local public-health officer uses her worm’s-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society. A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu…everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work.
Michael Lewis is not shy about calling these people heroes for their refusal to follow directives that they know to be based on misinformation and bad science. Even the internet, as crucial as it is to their exchange of ideas, poses a risk to them. They never know for sure who else might be listening in.”
I believe this is a fascinating, thought provoking, timeline of our nation’s reaction, readiness and response to a world-wide outbreak. Please note the beauty of this book is not to push one’s ideology or prove one side in a very divisive season in our country’s history….the beauty is the nuggets of wisdom, big picture view of what took place and clarity in what can be done so that we can respond to the next natural disaster with quality and excellence.