For folks who generally don't pay much attention to what's going on around them, this book is better than my rating may imply. They'll learn quite a lot. For those who don't follow science, this book is beyond your comprehension. For many of the others, this book will be a bit disjointed. Sometimes -- the bulk of the time -- it is a lucid, concise explanation of the world and the world of infectious diseases. At too many other times, it seems more like a seminar given at a medical convention. At others still, it seems more like a expert panel testifying to government policy wonks. In short, for the "average Joe or Josey", there will be sections where the author will be talking right past you. Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe the average citizen knows whether we really need $200 million or $2 billion for a particular government health care initiative. I don't. Having said all that, for the potential reader soaking up the bulk of the narrative about diseases and what it means for we average citizens, before starting to read this, please realize that the book was originally published about three years before the COVID-19 pandemic struck world-wide. (There's a COVID preface in the latest edition.) Of course, SARS and MERS and ebola and H1N1 and a host of other deadliest enemies had been threatening in recent years, so it had made sense that the U.S. federal administration had prepared a plan to confront the next health care tsunami. And then the tsunami struck and the wisest person in the world -- just ask him -- threw it all out the window. The result? Pretty much everything that this books primary author predicted -- warned -- would happen, then happened BIG TIME. The one thing the book does not dwell on is the willingness of millions of people to treat science as the disease worth fighting. You read. You judge. ( )

I heard of Michael Osterholm for the first time on the Joe Rogan Experience back in March of 2020... seems like so long ago. This is his book and it details the world's actual deadliest enemies, not other people as we all assume. It is wildly informative, and the fact that his predictions are so accurate, it's a bit terrifying.

The two biggest inevitable threats coming down the pipeline are ineffective antibiotics and a world-halting flu pandemic. Both require intense (and costly!) preparation. Hopefully, COVID-19 will motivate the world's leaders to take our deadliest enemies more seriously. ( )

An easily readable summary of the biggest epidemiological risks facing the world today. It's also part memoir, and those first-person parts from Osterholm's accomplished life were to me the weakest part of the book. But as a summary of the risks from influenza, antibiotic-resistant germs, SARS, AIDS, mosquitos and other health risks, it was both an informative summary and a thought-provoking polemic. ( )

Early on during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was looking for non-fiction that would help me to further understand pandemics. I saw this book but thought that there would be no chance in finding it on the shelves and ordering would take months. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see this on the shelf of my local, with an updated preface on COVID-19. Of course, it’s not up to the minute data given that our knowledge on COVID-19 grows and changes every day but it’s comforting to read. Why? Because this team pretty much predicted a pandemic and the scenario they run through is very eerily similar to what the world is experiencing now.

So why didn’t people and governments prepare?

That’s the overall theme of Deadliest Enemy – preparation is the key. Having adequate stocks of equipment and treatments if available. While the predicted pandemic here was influenza, there is a lot we can learn from this book and our current situation. Pandemics of various diseases aren’t new, and will continue to occur. What we can do is prepare our response. In this very readable book, Osterholm describes his career in epidemiology and the common and uncommon infectious diseases that occur. It starts with the early signs of what was to be known as HIV/AIDS – a medical mystery that had many baffled. How best to fight the unknown? To discover more? Epidemiologists are medical detectives, looking for signs and trends anywhere (right down to tampon absorbency in cases of toxic shock syndrome). The book is easy to understand and read, with chapters devoted to various diseases. There are the common pathogens like influenza, the uncommon but well known (Zika, Ebola) and the scary (SARS, MERS). The book also discusses bioterrorism, antimicrobial resistance and vaccines. Complex terms and situations are explained well. My only annoyance is that there is no bibliography included in the book so I could look at some of the original articles. But I also recognise that most people are not nerds like me.

This is probably one of the best, most approachable books about public health as it demonstrates the link between those working in the field and the average person. Osterholm knows his stuff and his people (Dr Anthony Fauci gets several mentions) and is passionate in discussing it. It’s not scary nor fear-mongering but downright fascinating.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )

Michael T. Osterholm is an expert on infectious diseases. He runs his own institution at the University of Minnesota. He is a public speaker and that is how I heard about him (on Joe Rogan), he is a sharp and focused individual worth paying attention to. The book published in 2017 is a siren alarm that a SARS pandemic is coming. He says it will probably come out of China, then proceeds to describe events that we are familiar with, even predicting the closing of baseball season. He covers other problems such as antibiotic resistance, Ebola, etc.. the usual suspects and some I never heard of before. Osterholm is not the first person to predict it, but maybe the most high profile and recent. This is not journalism but written by an expert for a general audience meant to educate more than titillate (such the Hot Zone) and it does entertain in parts. It is a prescient "Prelude" to the many history books that will be soon be arriving. ( )