Preventable, Devi Sridhar
Preventable, Devi Sridhar
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Preventable
How a Pandemic Changed the World & How to Stop the Next One

Author: Devi Sridhar

Narrator: Devi Sridhar

Unabridged: 13 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 04/21/2022


Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.

Preventable uses the spellbinding story of the COVID-19 pandemic to show how global politics shape our health.

Professor Devi Sridhar has risen to prominence for her vital roles in communicating science to the public and speaking truth to power. In Preventable she highlights lessons learned from outbreaks past and present in a narrative that traces the COVID-19 pandemic - including her personal experience as a scientist - and sets out a vision for how we can better protect ourselves from the inevitable health crises to come.

In gripping and heartfelt prose, Sridhar exposes the varied realities of those affected (from the jailed doctor in Wuhan who sounded the alarm, and the bored passengers marooned on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, to the daily nightmares of exhausted healthcare workers), and puts you in the room with key decision makers at crucial moments (from over-confident heads of states and their hesitant scientific advisors, to the beleaguered leaders of global health organisations).

Sridhar vibrantly conveys the twists and turns of a plot that saw: deadlier variants emerge (contrary to the predictions of social media pundits who argued it would mutate to a milder form); the Pyrrhic victory in many countries of the false narrative of health versus the economy (those countries which controlled the virus, like Taiwan and Denmark, had a steadier recovery); countries with weak health systems like Senegal and Vietnam fare better than countries like the US and UK (which were consistently ranked as the most prepared); and the quickest development of game-changing vaccines in history (and their unfair distribution).

Combining science, politics, ethics and economics, this definitive book dissects the global structures that determine our fate, and reveals the deep-seated economic and social inequalities at their heart - it will challenge, outrage and inspire.

© Devi Sridhar 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Reviews

Goodreads review by John on February 07, 2022

Like the other 'reviewers' I am yet to read this book, which won't be published until April, but I thought I might provide some balance by heaping some effusive praise: the best book I've never read. Prof Sridar has (probably) written an insightful, compelling narrative of the COVID-19 pandemic. She......more

Goodreads review by Vivek on February 07, 2022

Came here to balance the karma. Here are 5 stars for an unread book to counter the trolls. Seriously goodreader should not be allowing reviews for unreleased books......more

Goodreads review by Ali on May 24, 2022

I've strongly recommended this book to three people in the week since I have finished it - that's really high for any book, and especially so for dense non-fiction read I'm well aware won't appeal to most people. It's also high for a book with a very big problem: which is that it was finished in Aug......more

Goodreads review by Ana on September 10, 2022

Memory is a funny thing, isn't it? COVID is still so recent, so fresh and (most concerningly) possibly not over. And yet reading again about the early days of 2020 reminded me how different things are now and just exactly what it was that we went through. Shridhar takes on a vast and complex subject......more

Goodreads review by Roland on July 17, 2022

This book is an excellent overview of the Covid pandemic written by a scientist who was involved first hand in the communications to the public. She manages to convey the key concepts in layman’s language. She focuses not only on the direct consequences of the pandemic (hospitalisations, deaths, etc......more


Quotes

The sensational story of how a disaster was turned into a catastrophe, with the clarity, precision and humanity that you would expect from one of the most important voices of reason of the COVID era. A brutally compelling reminder that if voices like Devi's had been listened to, so many more could have lived

Excellent . . . Fair, clear and compelling. And like all of Devi's contributions over the course of the pandemic, very accessible

One of the most brilliant scientists in the world who has been proven consistently right in this crisis

Powerful . . . If we're to stop history from repeating itself when the next pandemic pathogen emerges, books such as Preventable are very much welcome Financial Times

Contributions such as Devi's will be the building blocks of the learning we need, as a global community, to create the awareness required for the healthier and safer world all people deserve

Essential reading

Devi is a public health expert with deep knowledge and expertise in the field. She has a unique ability to translate complex public health challenges, research and recommendations into language experts and non-experts alike can understand. I always read and listen to what she has to say and I hope you will too

Brilliant. I read it like a thriller that I had lived through, a fascinating, detailed and personal account of the pandemic that takes you behind and beyond the headlines. I suspect it will be the most readable account of all the analyses that will follow

Sridhar's prescience transformed her into one of Britain's most prominent commentators once . . . In her new book, Preventable, Sridhar distils the lessons of the time New Statesman

Those who have found Professor Devi Sridhar's expertise and calm advice invaluable since the arrival of Covid-19 will be glad to know that she has written Preventable Guardian, 'Nonfiction to look out for in 2022'