COVID-19 Pandemic Wake-up Call

Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs by Michael T. Osterholm
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is not my favorite kind of reading--it was lots of medical/scientific talk and focused lots on epidemiological research. Not fun, easy reading. But, given the COVID-19 pandemic--yes, a true pandemic of worldwide, shattering proportions, such as I've never experienced in my lifetime--this was a very relevant, insightful, and "frightening" book. The signs have all been there for years: a global pandemic has been set to break out any year--and the world was very, very unprepared for it. Not due to no warming signals; due to other priorities and lack of cooperative efforts that are needed--on a Marshall Plan (WWII) scale.

Osterholm should know--as he's been doing epidemiology work for 40+ years. And he's done his part in warning the US government, as well as others, for years. His clarion call gets summed up at the end of the book, and I'll include it here. These are issues, steps, goals that need to be heeded & taken soon--we've had fair warning. As Osterholm states, "Our ultimate goal should be to have a dose of game-changing influenza vaccine for every human being on earth."

"...Willis Towers Watson polls 3,000 insurance industry executives each year for what they consider the greatest risks to their industry...At the top of the list is “Pandemic: A new, highly infectious and fatal disease spreads through human, animal or plant populations worldwide.” That pandemic is most likely to come in the form of a deadly influenza strain. [ah, well, it's ALREADY come in 2020]

He declares that "we also have no illusions about what must be done if we are to make our world a safer and healthier place for our children and grandchildren, where pandemics do not threaten our way of life on every level imaginable, where infections caused by drug-resistant microbes do not kill for lack of an effective treatment, where drinking water does not become a vehicle of death, and where the emergence of new infectious diseases does not become a public health crisis because we are not prepared to rapidly stop them."

And here's the recap: "To review, our greatest threats are: 1. Pathogens of pandemic potential, which essentially means influenza and the downstream effects of antimicrobial resistance. 2. Pathogens of critical regional importance, which include Ebola, coronaviruses like SARS and MERS, other viruses such as Lassa and Nipah, and Aedes-transmitted diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, and Zika. 3. Bioterrorism and dual-use research of concern (DURC), and gain-of-function research of concern (GOFRC). 4. Endemic diseases that continue to have a major impact on the world’s health, particularly among emerging nations, including malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, viral hepatitis, childhood diarrheal diseases, and bacterial pneumonia.

The Crisis Agenda:
Priority 1: Create a Manhattan Project–like program to secure a game-changing influenza vaccine and vaccinate the world. We would hope other national governments, philanthropic organizations, vaccine manufacturers, and the WHO would readily join the effort. Our best guess is that we would need to invest $1 billion per year for seven to ten years to make this happen.
Priority 2: Establish an international organization to urgently address all aspects of antimicrobial resistance.
Priority 3: Support and substantially expand the mission and scope of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations (CEPI) to fast-track comprehensive public-private vaccine research, development, manufacturing, and distribution for diseases of current or potential critical regional importance.
Priority 4: Launch the Global Alliance for Control of Aedes-Transmitted Diseases (GAAD) and coordinate with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s malaria strategy, “Accelerate to Zero.”
Priority 5: Fully implement the recommendations of the bipartisan report of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense.
Priority 6: Establish an international organization similar to the National Scientific Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to minimize the use of DURC and GOFRC to transmit pathogens of pandemic potential.
Priority 7: Recognize that TB, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other life-threatening infectious diseases remain major global health problems.
Priority 8: Anticipate climate-change effects.
Priority 9: Adopt a One Health approach to human and animal diseases throughout the world.

Hopefully, the powers that be will get busy as a result of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to accomplish these priorities, ensuring a better world for our descendants. I borrowed this book from library; read it on my iPad.


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