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Author | Devi Sridhar |
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Country | UK |
Language | English |
Genre | Non-fiction |
Published | Viking Press 2022 |
Pages | 432 |
ISBN | 978-0241510537 |
Preventable: How a Pandemic Changed the World & How to Stop the Next One is a 2022 memoir about the COVD-19 pandemic by Devi Sridhar. The book documents the pandemic from the author's perspective as an advisor to the Scottish and UK governments, with criticism of the latter. Preventable was met with positive critical reception, noted for humanizing the pandemic and the author's accessible style.
Preventable was written by Devi Sridhar, the chair of global health at Edinburgh University. [1] It was published by Viking Press in 2022. [2] [1]
Preventable covers the first eighteen months of the COVID-19 pandemic. [2] The first chapter focuses on the origin of the virus and notes the Chinese government's reluctance to allow an investigation of the origins of the virus, documenting Sridhar's open-mindedness around the COVID-19 lab leak theory. [3]
The book compares COVID-19 variants and their relative transmissibility. [1] It compares pandemic responses internationally, contrasting governmental responses in China, South Korea, Vietnam, Senegal, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia. [1] It notes "over-confidence" from high income country government responses and critiques the tendency for high income countries to over-procure stocks of vaccines. [2] [4]
In Preventable, Sridhar notes how Nicola Sturgeon was more willing to take her advice than Boris Johnson, whose activities are compared to Jair Bolsonaro's and Donald Trump's. [2] Critique of Johnson continues, noting his absence at COBRA meetings and his decision visit COVID-19-positive patients in a hospital. [1] The book is also critical of the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies for their groupthink, their adoption of a herd immunity strategy, and their incorrect pessimism around the speed at which an effective vaccine could be produced. [3]
In the book, Sridhar discusses the online harassment she has received and Twitter doxing attempts. [2] She also writes about catching COVID-19. [1]
The book suggests what could be done better in the next pandemic, which is described as inevitable. [2]
Preventable is noted for being easily accessible, praised for humanising the story of the pandemic, and is described by Elsa Maishman in The Scotsman as the most readable of all recent COVID-19 pandemic memoirs. [2]
Sridhar's predictions are described as "prescient" and her analysis as "scathing" by Oliver Barns, writing in the Financial Times. [5]
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and recognize further and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future.
Healthcare in Europe is provided through a wide range of different systems run at individual national levels. Most European countries have a system of tightly regulated, competing private health insurance companies, with government subsidies available for citizens who cannot afford coverage. Many European countries offer their citizens a European Health Insurance Card which, on a reciprocal basis, provides insurance for emergency medical treatment insurance when visiting other participating European countries.
Big Pharma conspiracy theories are conspiracy theories which claim that pharmaceutical companies, especially large corporations, act in sinister and secretive ways, such as concealing effective treatments, or even intentionally causing and worsening a wide range of diseases, in pursuit of profitability, or for other nefarious reasons. Some theories have included the claim that natural alternative remedies to health problems are being suppressed, the claim that drugs for the treatment of HIV/AIDS are ineffective and harmful, the claim that a cure for all cancers has been discovered but hidden from the public, claims that COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective, and that alternative cures are available for COVID-19. In most cases the conspiracy theorists have blamed pharmaceutical companies' search for profits. A range of authors have shown these claims to be false, though some of these authors nevertheless maintain that other criticisms of the pharmaceutical industry are legitimate.
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Devi Lalita Sridhar FRSE is an American public health researcher, who is both professor and chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Her research considers the effectiveness of public health interventions and how to improve developmental assistance for health. Sridhar directs the University of Edinburgh's Global Health Governance Programme which she established in 2014.
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is a global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified in an outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. Attempts to contain it there failed, allowing the virus to spread to other areas of Asia and then worldwide in early 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020. The WHO ended its PHEIC declaration on 5 May 2023. As of 29 November 2023, the pandemic had caused 772,165,753 cases and 6,981,250 confirmed deaths, ranking it fifth in the list of the deadliest epidemics and pandemics in history.
Richard Hatchett is an American oncologist and epidemiologist who has been serving as chief executive officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in Oslo and London since 2017. He was awarded the Secretary of Health and Human Services's Award for Distinguished Service.
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Bonnie J. Fraser Henry is a Canadian physician and public servant who has been the provincial health officer at the British Columbia Ministry of Health since 2014. Henry is also a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia. She is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine, and is a family doctor. In her role as provincial health officer, Henry notably led the response to COVID-19 in British Columbia (BC).
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The World Health Organization (WHO) is a leading organisation involved in the global coordination for mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic within the broader United Nations response to the pandemic.
Science diplomacy is the collaborative efforts by local and global entities to solve global issues using science and technology as a base. In science diplomacy, collaboration takes place to advance science but science can also be used to facilitate diplomatic relations. This allows even conflicting nations to come together through science to find solutions to global issues. Global organizations, researchers, public health officials, countries, government officials, and clinicians have previously worked together to create effective measures of infection control and subsequent treatment. They continue to do so through sharing of resources, research data, ideas, and by putting into effect laws and regulations that can further advance scientific research. Without the collaborative efforts of such entities, the world would not have the vaccines and treatments we now possess for diseases that were once considered deadly such as tuberculosis, tetanus, polio, influenza, etc. Historically, science diplomacy has proved successful in diseases such as SARS, Ebola, Zika and continues to be relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic today.
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A nasal vaccine is a vaccine administered through the nose that stimulates an immune response without an injection. It induces immunity through the inner surface of the nose, a surface that naturally comes in contact with many airborne microbes. Nasal vaccines are emerging as an alternative to injectable vaccines because they do not use needles and can be introduced through the mucosal route. Nasal vaccines can be delivered through nasal sprays to prevent respiratory infections, such as influenza.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created and popularized many terms relating to disease and videoconferencing.
During the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, many people began to spread false or un-confirmed data and information. This included politicians and other government officials from administrations in several countries. Misinformation about the virus includes its origin, how it spreads, and methods of preventing and curing the disease. Some downplayed the threat of the pandemic, and made false statements about preventative measures, death rates and testing within their own countries. Some have also spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. Changing policies also created confusion and contributed to the spread of misinformation. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) originally discouraged use of face masks by the general public in early 2020, advising "If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with suspected 2019-nCoV infection," although the WHO later changed their advice to encourage public wearing of face masks.
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