The End of Epidemics

"Dr. Quick's urgent message makes one hope that this book will reach a huge audience and that its exhortations will be acted on everywhere." - Meredith Wadman, The Wall Street Journal

A leading doctor offers answers on the one of the most urgent questions of our time: How do we prevent the next global pandemic?

The 2014 Ebola epidemic in Liberia terrified the world—and revealed how unprepared we are for the next outbreak of an infectious disease. Somewhere in nature, a killer virus is boiling up in the bloodstream of a bird, bat, monkey, or pig, preparing to jump to a human being. This not-yet-detected germ has the potential to wipe out millions of lives over a matter of weeks or months. That risk makes the threat posed by ISIS, a ground war, a massive climate event, or even the dropping of a nuclear bomb on a major city pale in comparison.

In The End of Epidemics, Harvard Medical School faculty member and Chair of the Global Health...