Medical Books
Medicine
![Scott Gottlieb - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B0935YBNMV.jpg)
Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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.
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.
Editorial Reviews
"In Uncontrolled Spread, one thing is certain: Scott Gottlieb is in total control. Throughout the pandemic, my friend Scott consistently provided remarkable insights and clarity that advanced our collective knowledge. Through his medical acumen, decades of experience and insider access as former FDA commissioner, he was able to paint a clear portrait of what was happening, even as it was still blurry to everyone else. Uncontrolled Spread will make you anxious, and it should. It is 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, M.D., chief medical correspondent, CNN
"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." -- The Wall Street Journal
"Throughout the pandemic, no one - and I mean no one - has provided a clearer and more correct picture of what was happening to our country than Dr. Gottlieb. All the while he was sought out to provide more advice to decision-makers on all sides of the aisle than anyone. In Uncontrolled Spread, he is doing perhaps the ultimate service in telling the story to us in a gripping, no holds barred, yet highly constructive fashion. This book will be one of the bibles of this era." -- Andy Slavitt, former White House senior advisor for the COVID-19 response
"This is the book for anyone who wants to really understand the true story of how the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in our country. In Uncontrolled Spread, Dr. Scott Gottlieb provides a gripping and rich narrative of the worst public health and economic crisis of our lifetime. His book is extremely well-researched and enriched by firsthand exchanges with key leaders in government, academia, and the private sector. It offers unique perspectives from the vantage point of one of the most experienced public health leaders in America. Importantly, it provides a lucid assessment of what we need to do to avert a repeat catastrophe." -- Luciana Borio, M.D., former director for Medical and Biodefense Preparedness, National Security Council
"Dr. Gottlieb not only served as a trusted advisor to the NYSE and many of the companies listed on our Exchange throughout the pandemic but also consistently delivered expert analysis and pragmatic advice to all Americans. Now, with Uncontrolled Spread, he is stepping up again to share the many lessons learned from this challenging chapter in our country's history." -- Stacey Cunningham, President, New York Stock Exchange
...
"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." -- The Wall Street Journal
"Throughout the pandemic, no one - and I mean no one - has provided a clearer and more correct picture of what was happening to our country than Dr. Gottlieb. All the while he was sought out to provide more advice to decision-makers on all sides of the aisle than anyone. In Uncontrolled Spread, he is doing perhaps the ultimate service in telling the story to us in a gripping, no holds barred, yet highly constructive fashion. This book will be one of the bibles of this era." -- Andy Slavitt, former White House senior advisor for the COVID-19 response
"This is the book for anyone who wants to really understand the true story of how the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in our country. In Uncontrolled Spread, Dr. Scott Gottlieb provides a gripping and rich narrative of the worst public health and economic crisis of our lifetime. His book is extremely well-researched and enriched by firsthand exchanges with key leaders in government, academia, and the private sector. It offers unique perspectives from the vantage point of one of the most experienced public health leaders in America. Importantly, it provides a lucid assessment of what we need to do to avert a repeat catastrophe." -- Luciana Borio, M.D., former director for Medical and Biodefense Preparedness, National Security Council
"Dr. Gottlieb not only served as a trusted advisor to the NYSE and many of the companies listed on our Exchange throughout the pandemic but also consistently delivered expert analysis and pragmatic advice to all Americans. Now, with Uncontrolled Spread, he is stepping up again to share the many lessons learned from this challenging chapter in our country's history." -- Stacey Cunningham, President, New York Stock Exchange
...
Readers Top Reviews
M. JEFFREY MCMAHON
In Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic, author Scott Gottlieb, who was the FDA commissioner between 2017 and 2019, is in a unique position to write the definitive historical account of the Covid pandemic and the government system failures that have accompanied it. Even though I have a few criticisms that I will get to later, Gottlieb has for the most part succeeded at his objective and has written an urgent, necessary account that can give us vital lessons on fighting future pandemics. Gottlieb begins by criticizing us for not being prepared for Covid. We had ample warnings: SARS-1 in 2002; MERS in 2012; and, to my surprise, a Covid prototype from horseshoe bats in southwestern China in 2012 in which three Chinese coal miners died. Scientists used the above data to make repeated warnings about how necessary it was for us to be prepared for a more severe pandemic, but those cries were ignored. Just as egregious, China has repeatedly “ignored commitments” to share vital information and refused to cooperate when it was in the world’s health interests. For example, China wouldn’t allow the CDC in Wuhan during the early stages of Covid. In the context of the above challenges, Gottlieb presents us with his objectives: for us to learn from our mistakes, for us to create future pandemic strategies, for us to “fashion interventions that target . . . where the advance of a novel disease is most likely to occur,” and for us to make public health preparedness part of our national security. Gottlieb gives us a first-hand account of the government’s and CDC’s inconsistent and unreliable messaging, our nation’s piecemeal response when we needed a “coordinated national response,” and our lack of domestic-made pandemic protective products. Gottlieb makes it clear that he doesn’t want to cover his criticisms in a political context. He doesn’t want to make it a book about Trump or the alleged failures of governors. Rather, he wants to analyze “systemic breakdowns” and identify “fundamental weakness--root causes of our vulnerability” in our pandemic response. It’s true that a critique of the president and the governors would have been a different book; on the other hand, it’s impossible to address our systemic breakdowns without emphasizing how toxic and politicized our response was and how misinformation accelerated our polarized country. Gottlieb should not have given such short shrift to this vital force in the breakdown of our response. To defend Gottlieb, though, he does acknowledge “the sickness of our political culture,” but he only scratches the surface of this topic. One area that Gottlieb appropriately criticizes with great detail is the CDC. Their colossal failure was to produce a simple, reliable Covid test. The CDC also failed in messaging, providin...
Alex M
This is an excellent read, whether you’ve been closely following covid all along or just looking for the one reliable source to tie it all together. It takes you from the halls of overrun New York City hospitals to the halls of the West Wing. It also helps you see the situation in China in a whole new light—it’s still hard to comprehend how different things might have been if we had had more information early on. Gottlieb covers both political and policy missteps but also gives a strikingly honest assessment of what made America so vulnerable. If there is one covid book to serve as a touchstone of how we can and must change, this is it.
