Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs - Hardcover

Osterholm Ph.D. MPH, Michael T.; Olshaker, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316343692 ISBN 13: 9780316343695

Publisher: Little, Brown US, 2017

Synopsis

Every new development--from exploding human and animal populations to trade and travel--intensifies our susceptibility to a devastating epidemic. Ironically, a pandemic on the scale of the 1918 flu that killed perhaps a hundred million people would be deadlier today, despite a century of medical advances. As the current Zika epidemic proves, we are wholly unprepared for these diseases. So what can-and must--we do to protect ourselves against mankind's Deadliest Enemy? Separating experience-borne fact from mindless fear, Michael Osterholm and Mark Olshaker detail the plans and resources that must be in place when the unthinkable becomes the inevitable. DEADLIEST ENEMY is high scientific drama, a chronicle of mystery and discovery, a reality check, and a plan of action.

About this title

Review:

"As a former governor responsible for the welfare and health of my state, and a former United States Senator concerned with national security, I applaud Deadliest Enemy as a chilling and important wakeup call. Not only is it a fascinating human story and medical detective drama, it lays out the great public health challenges facing humanity and the actions that need to be initiated or enhanced to avert their life or death consequences."--Bob Graham, former Governor of Florida, U.S. Senator and Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee

"This book will change the way you think. It is clear, well written, and has a narrative drive provided by a subtext worthy of Stephen King. It is also based on solid science--in fact, I wish the science weren't so solid, so I could dismiss its conclusions. If enough people--or the right people--read it, it will do what few books can do: it will save many, many lives."
--John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History and Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America

"Osterholm and Olshaker calmly show us that Mother Nature is the 'greatest bioterrorist of them all.' Marshaling solid scientific evidence, they question why we have spent billions on the 'war on terror' and virtually nothing for an inevitable calamity that will kill millions. This stunning book is a clarion call to mount a Manhattan Project 2.0 that would prepare for the coming global pandemic. Someone should listen."--Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and coauthor of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

"Dr. Michael Osterholm is 'the Paul Revere of the Germ War.' To those of us who have peered over the horizon and seen the enemy, his work is heroic and critical. So I am extremely gratified that he and Mark Olshaker are now sharing that vital knowledge and insight in their compelling new book, Deadliest Enemy."--Michael Leavitt, former Governor of Utah, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Secretary of Health and Human Services

"Michael Osterholm is one of the best epidemiologists -- hunters of infectious diseases -- of our time. When Osterholm tells us that the potential for global pandemics is a life-or-death issue for every person on the planet, we need to listen. Deadliest Enemy is a powerful and necessary book that looks at the threat of emerging diseases with clarity and realism, and offers us not just fear but plans."--Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone and The Demon in the Freezer

Book Description:

A world-leading epidemiologist shares his stories from the front lines of our war on infectious diseases and explains how to prepare for epidemics that can challenge world order.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown US
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0316343692
• ISBN 13: 9780316343695
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304