The Premonition: A Pandemic Story

Best retrospective look at the Covid pandemic and our government's inept response to it. Lewis handles public health and epidemiology, subjects that could be boring to the average reader, with an eye for both detail and the human side of the story.While Trump is inevitably identified as a key failure, Lewis offers accurate, documented criticism of the CDC and the entire political structure of our public health "system."The clear discussion of how a disease can spread exponentially is of particular value, as is the discussion of current data as a "snapshot of the past" and a predictor of the immediate future.This book is a rarity: a focus upon public health issues that is both informative and entertaining.

With this last year so fresh in my mind, and the myriad of questions buzzing around in my head, I was so glad I was able to read this book. It provided coherent background to all the bits and pieces I coddled together from watching the news or reading science articles about the coronavirus. It is a well written book that captures the zeitgeist of the past year. I don't like to come to a book looking for validation, but in some ways it is hard not to because it was published so close to 2020 amidst a pandemic that greatly affected this country and that continues much more severely in other parts of the world.The story of Charity Dean is compelling if not only because her questions are my questions. Her knowledge of politics and the health care system puts things in a perspective that at times made me mad, made me frustrated, and made me sad. It doesn't seem that being a public health official should be such a struggle, but when one throws in the whims of politics and a lack of support for people who make the real hard decisions, it ends up that way.The other main characters: Joe DeRisi, Richard Hatchett, and Carter Mecher are the main technologists of the story who keep hope alive: Joe with his work with ViroChip and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, and Richard and Carter with their emergency pandemic response plan. I know guys like them. We too have a guy similar to Carter who everyone asks questions of and who is always happy to give answers. I work in a tech field, so I know what it is like to bring one's knowledge and reason to bear so hard down upon an intractable problem. However, their problem was to save the country in a pandemic, a magnitude of a problem I have never had to face.In the end, with such relatable characters and a good story to tell, and about such a recent polarizing event in the public conscious, this book is a winner. More cold and academic tracts will be written about the 2020 pandemic year five or ten years down the line, but this one came at the proper time and with proper humanization of an event of mind-blowing magnitude. I heartily recommend this book.

This book provides some good insight into America’s public health system. Not the most exciting of Lewis’s work, but a worthwhile read as Lewis walks one through the covid story through the eyes of a few folks who work in the area of public health.

Amazingly detailed critique of the covid19 pandemic crisis in this country. Excellent reader!

This book tells the story on the ground... through people who actually had to deal with the reality of the pandemic rather than talk about it. Lewis' focus on the Public Health system in the US ,which is underfunded and unappreciated, is probably;y the most important part of this book. Its was local Public Health offices which ultimately had to deal with the crisis and they were , in many cases, not supported by government agencies further up the chain. They were often despised and their personnel were sometimes threatened as they tried to carry out suggestions sent down form the CDC and their respective state Departments of Health. Lewis describes the CDC as a "scholarly institution" with plenty of published research papers but absolutely no plan of action for dealing with the pandemic.Anyone paying attention realized that Trump and Redfield were simply not up to the task and that their only plan was to downplay the crisis. Obama realized there could be a problem but didn't push it. To my surprise it was George W. Bush who in 2006, after reading Barry's excellent book on the 1918 flu, became alarmed and started the wheels of government turning so that the country might have a plan should a serious pandemic strike. Lewis wisely doesn't spend much time on the political figures in this story which makes the book more relevant and compelling. We will have another pandemic and hopefully .the next time, instead of downplaying it, we will have learned our lesson and will be ready to act. It was really interesting to learn about school closures and why they were so important to slowing the pandemic. This is the best book I've read on the subject so far....a real page turner.

This book should be required reading for those mask and vaccine deniers. Tracks the rationale behind the public health response, some reasons why it fell short of what could have been, and a warning for the future if we continue to deny science and best available evidence. Michael Lewis is fast becoming my favorite author, easy to read and explains complex issues in a way anyone could understand.

As always, Michael Lewis tells a great story with compelling narrative. As a physician, I found his portrayal of the government services to be accurate and fair. We all owe thanks to the dedication and commitment of many of these individuals. “The system” doesn’t make it easy to shine and these bright people were able to do that and still remain under the radar

Answers a lot of questions swirling around COVID. Well written and thoughtful!

Loved everything about it!

While the author tries to bring out the outstanding individuals who try their best despite the system to bring out positive outcomes, what comes across is the sad reality that our institutions aren't ready to deal with the challenges of the future..A book that will shed light on possibly how every aspect of government works and probably always will work because of the incentives built in that almost always are against the interests of the general public.

This book left me with a newfound respect for our local public health officials who even outside of pandemics are literally out there detecting and diagnosing those illnesses that can do humans the most harm. They are officials who put up with the greatest level of BS from the federal govt, both Democrat and Republican, and do so at miserable pay. This book is a captivating study of just a handful of public health officials who since the early 2000s had "A Premonition" of a sign of things to come and I had no idea the number of viruses and "close calls" we have had in our lifetime since 1918. The CDC come out absolutely terribly in this book, and, like the WHO, have a lot to answer for on what the hell they were upto in the decades prior to COVID-19, continuously ignoring research and findings Brought upon them by local health officials. It was eye opening and Michael Lewis does it once again with his Motley Crue of characters who "saw what no one else saw" in line with his characters from all of his great books.

Although this a book about the Covid pandemic, it reads like a well-written novel. Definitely. Worth reading.Lots of insights, from medicine to computer science to politics.