The COVID-19 pandemic altered life as we know it and claimed millions of lives in the process, and yet, the next pandemic might be even worse. A new book, called "The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics" (Little Brown Spark, 2025), describes a theoretical-but-plausible scenario in which a new and deadlier coronavirus emerges and quickly spreads around the world, despite public health officials' best efforts to stop it.
In the text, Michael Osterholm, founding director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, and award-winning author Mark Olshaker discuss lessons we should take away from past pandemics in order to mitigate the harms that a "SARS-3" could wreck on the global population. The following is an excerpt from the book.
