Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Uncontrolled Spread is everything you’d hope: a smart and insightful account of what happened and, currently, the best guide to what needs to be done to avoid a future pandemic." —Wall Street Journal

“Informative and well paced.”—The Guardian

“An intense ride through the pandemic with chilling details of what really happened. It is also sprinkled with notes of true wisdom that may help all of us better prepare for the future.”—Sanjay Gupta, MD, chief medical correspondent, CNN

Physician and former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb asks: Has America’s COVID-19 catastrophe taught us anything?

In Uncontrolled Spread, he shows how the coronavirus and its variants were able to trounce America’s pandemic preparations, and he outlines the steps that must be taken to protect against the next outbreak. As the pandemic unfolded, Gottlieb was in regular contact with all the key players in Congress, the Trump administration, and the drug and diagnostic industries. He provides an inside account of how level after level of American government crumbled as the COVID-19 crisis advanced.

A system-wide failure across government institutions left the nation blind to the threat, and unable to mount an effective response. We’d prepared for the wrong virus. We failed to identify the contagion early enough and became overly reliant on costly and sometimes divisive tactics that couldn’t fully slow the spread. We never considered asymptomatic transmission and we assumed people would follow public health guidance. Key bureaucracies like the CDC were hidebound and outmatched. Weak political leadership aggravated these woes. We didn’t view a public health disaster as a threat to our national security.

Many of the woes sprung from the CDC, which has very little real-time reporting capability to inform us of Covid’s twists and turns or assess our defenses. The agency lacked an operational capacity and mindset to mobilize the kind of national response that was needed. To guard against future pandemic risks, we must remake the CDC and properly equip it to better confront crises. We must also get our intelligence services more engaged in the global public health mission, to gather information and uncover emerging risks before they hit our shores so we can head them off. For this role, our clandestine agencies have tools and capabilities that the CDC lacks.

Uncontrolled Spread argues we must fix our systems and prepare for a deadlier coronavirus variant, a flu pandemic, or whatever else nature — or those wishing us harm — may threaten us with. Gottlieb outlines policies and investments that are essential to prepare the United States and the world for future threats.

1139568341
Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Uncontrolled Spread is everything you’d hope: a smart and insightful account of what happened and, currently, the best guide to what needs to be done to avoid a future pandemic." —Wall Street Journal

“Informative and well paced.”—The Guardian

“An intense ride through the pandemic with chilling details of what really happened. It is also sprinkled with notes of true wisdom that may help all of us better prepare for the future.”—Sanjay Gupta, MD, chief medical correspondent, CNN

Physician and former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb asks: Has America’s COVID-19 catastrophe taught us anything?

In Uncontrolled Spread, he shows how the coronavirus and its variants were able to trounce America’s pandemic preparations, and he outlines the steps that must be taken to protect against the next outbreak. As the pandemic unfolded, Gottlieb was in regular contact with all the key players in Congress, the Trump administration, and the drug and diagnostic industries. He provides an inside account of how level after level of American government crumbled as the COVID-19 crisis advanced.

A system-wide failure across government institutions left the nation blind to the threat, and unable to mount an effective response. We’d prepared for the wrong virus. We failed to identify the contagion early enough and became overly reliant on costly and sometimes divisive tactics that couldn’t fully slow the spread. We never considered asymptomatic transmission and we assumed people would follow public health guidance. Key bureaucracies like the CDC were hidebound and outmatched. Weak political leadership aggravated these woes. We didn’t view a public health disaster as a threat to our national security.

Many of the woes sprung from the CDC, which has very little real-time reporting capability to inform us of Covid’s twists and turns or assess our defenses. The agency lacked an operational capacity and mindset to mobilize the kind of national response that was needed. To guard against future pandemic risks, we must remake the CDC and properly equip it to better confront crises. We must also get our intelligence services more engaged in the global public health mission, to gather information and uncover emerging risks before they hit our shores so we can head them off. For this role, our clandestine agencies have tools and capabilities that the CDC lacks.

Uncontrolled Spread argues we must fix our systems and prepare for a deadlier coronavirus variant, a flu pandemic, or whatever else nature — or those wishing us harm — may threaten us with. Gottlieb outlines policies and investments that are essential to prepare the United States and the world for future threats.

28.99 In Stock
Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic

Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic

by Scott Gottlieb
Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic

Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic

by Scott Gottlieb

Hardcover

$28.99 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Ships in 1-2 days
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Uncontrolled Spread is everything you’d hope: a smart and insightful account of what happened and, currently, the best guide to what needs to be done to avoid a future pandemic." —Wall Street Journal

“Informative and well paced.”—The Guardian

“An intense ride through the pandemic with chilling details of what really happened. It is also sprinkled with notes of true wisdom that may help all of us better prepare for the future.”—Sanjay Gupta, MD, chief medical correspondent, CNN

Physician and former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb asks: Has America’s COVID-19 catastrophe taught us anything?

In Uncontrolled Spread, he shows how the coronavirus and its variants were able to trounce America’s pandemic preparations, and he outlines the steps that must be taken to protect against the next outbreak. As the pandemic unfolded, Gottlieb was in regular contact with all the key players in Congress, the Trump administration, and the drug and diagnostic industries. He provides an inside account of how level after level of American government crumbled as the COVID-19 crisis advanced.

A system-wide failure across government institutions left the nation blind to the threat, and unable to mount an effective response. We’d prepared for the wrong virus. We failed to identify the contagion early enough and became overly reliant on costly and sometimes divisive tactics that couldn’t fully slow the spread. We never considered asymptomatic transmission and we assumed people would follow public health guidance. Key bureaucracies like the CDC were hidebound and outmatched. Weak political leadership aggravated these woes. We didn’t view a public health disaster as a threat to our national security.

Many of the woes sprung from the CDC, which has very little real-time reporting capability to inform us of Covid’s twists and turns or assess our defenses. The agency lacked an operational capacity and mindset to mobilize the kind of national response that was needed. To guard against future pandemic risks, we must remake the CDC and properly equip it to better confront crises. We must also get our intelligence services more engaged in the global public health mission, to gather information and uncover emerging risks before they hit our shores so we can head them off. For this role, our clandestine agencies have tools and capabilities that the CDC lacks.

Uncontrolled Spread argues we must fix our systems and prepare for a deadlier coronavirus variant, a flu pandemic, or whatever else nature — or those wishing us harm — may threaten us with. Gottlieb outlines policies and investments that are essential to prepare the United States and the world for future threats.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780063080010
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 09/21/2021
Pages: 512
Sales rank: 97,710
Product dimensions: 9.00(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Dr. Scott Gottlieb served as the twenty-third commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration and is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a regular contributor to the business news channel CNBC and a partner at the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates. Dr. Gottlieb serves on the board of directors of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. and the genomic sequencing company Illumina, Inc. Fortune magazine has recognized him as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” and Time magazine has named him one of its “50 People Transforming Healthcare.” A graduate of Wesleyan University and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Gottlieb is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. He lives with his family in Westport, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 America the Vulnerable 14

Chapter 2 Confusion and Subterfuge 26

Chapter 3 Pandemics as National Security Threats 47

Chapter 4 The Outbreak We Didn't Want to See 56

Chapter 5 Looking for Spread in the Wrong Places 78

Chapter 6 The Zika Misadventure 94

Chapter 7 The CDC Fails 107

Chapter 8 Not Enough Tests and Not Enough Labs 139

Chapter 9 Shortage after Shortage 151

Chapter 10 Preparing for the Wrong Pathogen 174

Chapter 11 Stay-at-Home Orders 186

Chapter 12 A Plan Gone Awry 202

Chapter 13 The Information Desert 228

Chapter 14 Hardened Sites 255

Chapter 15 Evidence Is Hard to Collect in a Crisis 280

Chapter 16 Getting Drugs to Patients 303

Chapter 17 The mRNA Breakthrough 320

Chapter 18 A New Doctrine for National Security 341

Conclusion 381

Acknowledgments 397

Notes 401

Index 471

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews