Ali Khan

This is an inside account of the fight to contain the world’s deadliest diseases and the panic and corruption that make them even worse.
Throughout history, humankind’s biggest killers have been infectious diseases and modern technology enabling a level of globalization prior unimaginable, multiplied their possible disease vectors. We ignored this reality most of the time until the current outbreak of COVID-19, a Corona-type respiratory disease very reminiscent of the 2002 SARS.
Ali Khan, MD, MPH, an Assistant Surgeon General, leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) shows us how we make mistakes, politicize emergencies, and, too often, on an individual level lack the imagination, information, or even responsibility to react properly to a pandemic threat. Most importantly, he provides the reader with a perspective to compare the current COVID-19 with prior outbreak of related diseases and containment measures then affected.
The Next Pandemic is a firsthand account of disasters like anthrax, bird flu, ebola and most importantly SARS for its close realation to COVID-19.

A must read for anybody who understands that one must not - cannot rely on the popular media for perspective and a deep understanding that can lead to the big picture and consequently enables one to react proper to an infectious threat. After all, the media is akin a person that chooses to illuminate with a flashlight a corner of an otherwise dark room and then deceives you, quite purposefully so, into believing you know it all - when in fact you merely know what they want you to know.… (plus d'informations)

Set in present-day Bangladesh, this is the story of a boy named Bijoy. His father is determined that the generations-long cycle of extreme poverty in his family must end, so he walks Bijoy to the village school every day. After his father's sudden death, his mother does the best she can to keep him in school.

Circumstances force them to move to Dhaka, the capital, along with another more well-off family. Bijoy is put into an orphanage, which is acceptable for the extreme poor. He gets a decent education, while his mother is able to work as a cook/maid, and she visits him often. After several years in the orphanage, Bijoy goes on to college, where he meets someone. He takes the relationship much more seriously than she does, so things do not end well.

Bijoy takes up music to heal his broken heart. He gets pretty good at playing the bamboo flute, good enough to join a musical group that plays several concerts in Canada. While there, his mother begs him not to come home. He is on a political party's hit list. They think that he saw something that he shouldn't have seen, and they want to silence him, permanently.

He applies for refugee status in Canada, continues his music studies, and meets someone. He is afraid of getting burned again, so he takes things very slowly. Bijoy also applies for his mother, stepfather and younger sister to emigrate to Canada. Is he successful? Do they re-unite in Canada?

This one is surprisingly good. It is a heartwarming story about overcoming adversity and keeping your "eyes on the prize". It also works really well as a self-help book. It is very much worth checking out.… (plus d'informations)