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

In the 20th century, we witnessed three major pandemics: Spanish flu in 1918, pneumococcal pneumonia in 1924, and polio in 1946. The most recent outbreak of pandemic influenza was the 2009 swine flu pandemic. COVID-19 is a complicated virus that's only known to have been seen once before. Because it was never seen before, it took public health experts two years to develop an effective vaccine for it. In those two years, COVID-19 spread around the world infecting millions of people over 130 different countries.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Global Migration and Quarantine is responsible for preventing the spread of disease globally. COVID-19, a specialized anti-viral drug, was intended to be used in cases of respiratory viral infections that were not responding to other antivirals. Instead, COVID-19 caused untreatable pneumonia in multiple countries. This went unnoticed because the drug was not tested outside of FDA guidelines.

In this audiobook, Scott Gottlieb explains what the COVID-19 assays for dengue fever and why they failed catastrophically. He also shares some of his personal insights into the pandemic from his time as the deputy commissioner of the FDA. While dangerous pathogens like Ebola and MERS have been curbed, he argues new infectious diseases are emerging unchecked.

The year of 2019 was a bad year for the world. COVID-19, an influenza strain that could lead to mass pandemic, was discovered in just a few days during the annual flu season but it took months to prepare for its arrival, and when it finally came, it hit hard. Millions died and billions were spent, but at the same time COVID-19 is only one chapter in a history of deadly viruses that have killed too many people.

This audiobook exposes the failures of health agencies and how science could have helped avert the next pandemic.