DigeeBooks

New York Times Bestseller



For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about.

Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected. A thirteen-year-old girl’s science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control. A local public-health officer uses her worm’s-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society. A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu…everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work.

Michael Lewis is not shy about calling these people heroes for their refusal to follow directives that they know to be based on misinformation and bad science. Even the internet, as crucial as it is to their exchange of ideas, poses a risk to them. They never know for sure who else might be listening in.

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story is a gripping account of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, as told through the eyes of a group of scientists and public health officials who saw the crisis coming and tried to sound the alarm.

The book begins in January 2020, when a group of scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are alerted to a cluster of mysterious respiratory illnesses in Wuhan, China. The scientists quickly realize that they are dealing with a novel virus that has the potential to cause a global pandemic.

As the virus begins to spread across the United States, the CDC and other public health agencies face an uphill battle to contain it. They are hampered by a lack of testing, a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), and a fragmented healthcare system that makes it difficult to coordinate a nationwide response.

Despite the challenges, a group of dedicated scientists and public health officials work tirelessly to understand the virus, develop treatments, and implement public health measures to slow its spread. They face resistance from politicians, who are often more concerned with the economy than with public health, and from a public that is weary of restrictions on their daily lives.

The Premonition is a sobering reminder of the importance of science and public health in times of crisis. It is also a story of hope, as it shows how a group of dedicated individuals can make a difference in the face of overwhelming odds.