The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance: Garrett, Laurie: 9780140250916: Amazon.com: Books
The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance Reprint Edition
by Laurie Garrett (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 216 ratings
ISBN-13: 978-0140250916
ISBN-10: 9780140250916Why is ISBN important?
The definitive account of epidemics in our time, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning public heath expert Laurie Garrett.
A New York Times notable book
Unpurified drinking water. Improper use of antibiotics. Local warfare. Massive refugee migration. Changing social and environmental conditions around the world have fostered the spread of new and potentially devastating viruses and diseases—HIV, Lassa, Ebola, and others.
Laurie Garrett takes you on a fifty-year journey through the world's battles with microbes and examines the worldwide conditions that have culminated in recurrent outbreaks of newly discovered diseases, epidemics of diseases migrating to new areas, and mutated old diseases that are no longer curable.
She argues that it is not too late to take action to prevent the further onslaught of viruses and microbes, and offers possible solutions for a healthier future.
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The Next Pandemic: On the Front Lines Against Humankind's Gravest…
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Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present and Future
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A Planet of Viruses: Second Edition
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The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age
by Nathan Wolfe
----------------------
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Where's your next disease coming from? From anywhere in the world--from overflowing sewage in Cairo, from a war zone in Rwanda, from an energy-efficient office building in California, from a pig farm in China or North Carolina.
"Preparedness demands understanding," writes Pulitzer-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, and in this precursor to Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, she shows a clear understanding of the patterns lying beneath the new diseases in the headlines (AIDS, Lyme) and the old ones resurgent (tuberculosis, cholera).
As the human population explodes, ecologies collapse and simplify, and disease organisms move into the gaps. As globalization continues, diseases can move from one country to another as fast as an airplane can fly.
While the human race battles itself ... the advantage moves to the microbes' court. They are our predators and they will be victorious if we, Homo sapiens, do not learn how to live in a rational global village that affords the microbes few opportunities.
Her picture is not entirely bleak. Epidemics grow when a disease outbreak is amplified--by contaminated water supplies, by shared needles, by recirculated air, by prostitution. And controlling the amplifiers of disease is within our power; it's a matter of money, people, and will. --Mary Ellen Curtin
From Publishers Weekly
Garrett probes the human impact on the environment and the resulting emergence of new and mutating deadly viruses.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"A frightening vision of the future and a deeply unsettling one...a sober, scary book that not only limns the dangers posed by emerging diseases but also raises serious questions about two centuries worth of Enlightenment beliefs in science and technology and progress." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Like her role model Rachel Carson, whose 1962 Silent Spring woke up society to environmental poisoning, Garrett aims to dispel social and political complacency about the threat of old, new, and yet-unknown microbial catastrophes in a golbal ecology that links Bujumbura, Bangkok, and Boston more closely than anyone appreciates." Richard A. Knox, The Boston Globe
"Garrett has done a brilliant job of putting scientific work into layman's language, and the scariness of medical melodramas is offset by the excitement of scientific detection." —The New Yorker
"The book is ambitious, but it succeeds...[its] scope is encyclopedic, its mass of detail startling." —The Economist
"Garrett brilliantly develops her theme that repidly increasing dangers are being ignored. Her investigations have taken over a decade to complete, and her findings are meticulously discussed and distilled." — Richard Horton, The New York Review of Books
"Encyclopedic in detail, missionary in zeal, and disturbing in its message...The Coming Plague makes fascinating if troubling reading. It is an important contribution to our awareness of human ecology and the fragility of the relative biological well-being that many of us enjoy. Garrett has mastered an extraordinary amount of detail about the pathology, epidemiology, and human events surrounding dozens of complex diseases. She writes engagingly, carrying her themes as well as the reader's interest from outbreak to outbreak. —The Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Absorbing...the insights into the personalities and the stories behind new infectious diseases are fascinating. I have the greatest admiration for Laurie Garrett." —Abraham Verghese, M.D., author of In the Heartland: A Doctor's Story of a Town and Its People in the Age of AIDS
"A masterpiece of reporting and writing, The Coming Plague is the best and most thorough book on the terrifying emergence of new plagues. The level of detail is amazing, with fascinating portraits of the so-called 'disease cowboys,' the doctors and scientists who fight infectious diseases on the front lines. The Coming Plague is a must read for anyone interested in the biological fate of the human species." —Richard Preston, New York Times-bestselling author of The Hot Zone
Read more
About the Author
Laurie Garrett is a former senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1996 for a series of works published in Newsday, and has also been awarded the Polk and Peabody Prizes. She is the author of The Coming Plague, Betrayal of Trust, and Ebola: Story of an Outbreak.See less
Product details
Paperback: 768 pages
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition (October 1, 1995)
Language: English
More about the author
› Visit Amazon's Laurie Garrett Page
Follow
Biography
Laurie Garrett is the only writer ever to have been awarded all three of the Big "Ps" of journalism: the Peabody, the Polk, and the Pulitzer.
LATEST BOOK: I HEARD THE SIRENS SCREAM: How Americans Responded to the 9/11 and Anthrax Attacks, available exclusively as an e-book.
WEBSITE: Visit www.lauriegarrett.com
Her journalistic efforts at KPFA-FM radio in northern California garnered the 1977 George Foster Peabody broadcast journalism award, for a series called "Science Story." In 1996 Garrett received the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the 1995 Ebola virus epidemic in Kikwit, Zaire. The following year she was awarded the George C. Polk award for a series of more than 30 articles she published in Newsday, documenting the collapse of health and rise of HIV, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and dozens of other diseases in the former Soviet countries. Her second Polk Award was given in recognition of the reporting in BETRAYAL OF TRUST: The Collapse of Global Public Health.
Laurie Garrett was in graduate school studying immunology when she started reporting, as a sideline, on Berkley radio station KPFA-FM. After a year of this hobby, including the co-production of a radio series, "Science Story," Garrett and colleague Adi Gevins were awarded the George Foster Peabody Award for Broadcasting, the highest such honor for radio. Garrett continued working at KPFA, in multiple jobs including management, reporting, documentary production, and disc jockey. She received multiple awards during this period, including the so-called "Major Award" in broadcasting from the Edwin Howard Armstrong Foundation.
In 1979 Garrett spent a year covering a variety of stories overseas, including the SALT-II nuclear disarmament negotiations between the US and USSR, the World Food Summit in Rome, civil war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the anti-apartheid activities in the African frontline states, and a long list of outbreaks and disease issues across sub-Saharan Africa. During this period she resided primarily in Lusaka, Zambia, reporting for a variety of news outlets, from Pacifica Radio to the BBC.
From 1980-88 Garrett worked as a Science Correspondent for National Public Radio, based first in San Francisco and then Los Angeles. Her work at NPR, which featured detailed coverage of the unfolding HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US and Africa, was honored with a long list of awards and recognition. Garrett began covering the AIDS epidemic in June 1981, and continuously chronicled the horrible spread of the disease and its toll for more than 20 years.
In mid-1988 Garrett left NPR to join the science writing and foreign desk staffs of Newsday, then the third largest daily newspaper in America. Garrett covered a diverse range of stories all over the world, including: the spread of HIV around Lake Victoria, plague in India, Chernobyl radiation illness in Ukraine, toxic waste in El Salvador, discovery of ancient tombs in the Egyptian desserts, and SARS in Beijing.
In 1996 Garrett was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for her coverage of the 1995 Ebola virus epidemic in Zaire. In addition to the "three P's of Journalism" Garrett's work at Newsday was honored with four awards from the Overseas Press Club of America, and a long list of recognitions from a variety of professional journalism societies. In 2000 Garrett shared with the New York Times' Larry Altman the first Victor Cohn Award for Medical Science Reporting, from the National Association of Science Writers (NASW). Garrett served as President of NASW for two years while at Newsday.
The EDUCATION
Garrett was born in Los Angeles, a 5th generation Los Angeleno. Garrett is a proud product of public education, having attended public schools and universities in California. She graduated with honors in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Garrett attended graduate school in the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology at UC Berkeley and did research at Stanford University in the laboratory of Dr. Leonard Herzenberg. Her PhD studies, mentored by Dr. Leon Wofsy, focused on measuring T cell responses to variable stimuli.
Garrett did not complete her PhD studies, as her reporting "hobby" in local radio proved far more compelling. Laurie Garrett never attended a school of journalism, though she served on the faculty of the Schools of Journalism at UC Berkeley (academic year 1997-98) and Columbia University (2001).
In academic year 1992-3 Garrett was a Fellow in the Harvard School of Public Health, where she learned a tremendous amount of health science that continues to guide her work today.
In 1995 Garrett received the University of California Alumni Achievement Award.
In 1998 Laurie Garrett was awarded a PhD by Illinois Wesleyan University, Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
In 2002 Garrett was awarded a second PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell: Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
In 2007 the University of Minnesota named Laurie Garrett a member of the Delta Omega Society, an honorary public health society.
In 2009 Garrett was awarded a PhD from Georgetown University, Scientiae Doctorum, honoris causa.
In 2011 Laurie Garrett was named one of the "45 Greatest Alumni" of the University of California in Santa Cruz, on the 45th anniversary of the school's creation.
The COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
In 2004 Laurie Garrett left Newsday to join the think tank staff of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. She now runs the Council's Global Health Program, and serves as the Senior Fellow for Global Health. Garrett has written several reports and articles including: HIV and National Security: Where are the Links?, A Council Report (Council on Foreign Relations Press, 2005), 'The Next Pandemic?' (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2005), 'The Lessons of HIV/AIDS' (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2005), 'The Challenge of Global Health' (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007), The Future of Foreign Assistance Amid Global Economic and Financial Crisis, A Council on Foreign Relations Action Plan (2009),and CastroCare in Crisis (Foreign Affairs July/August 2010).
AND FINALLY (in the first person)
I am an avid urban cyclist, using a 25 year old Specialized Crossroads for commuting and errands, and a custom titanium Merlin road bike for the real rides. I avidly support the greening of NYC, expansion of bike paths and lowering Brooklyn's carbon footprint.
For several years I was a partner with Havens Wines, located in the Napa Valley. The wines were magnificent, and being in the wine biz -- even merely as one of 14 partners --- was loads of fun. Sadly, we sold Havens Wines a few years ago, and the buyers couldn't make a go of it: Havens no longer exists. But I retain great admiration for skilled wine makers, and love of gourmet meals lubricated with fantastic wines and shared with great friends.
For more than 20 years I have been a strong supporter of the arts in New York, especially performances at BAM. As a BAM patron, I attend as many of the Brooklyn Academy of Music concerts, plays, dances and performances as my schedule will allow.
Brooklyn rules.
Show Less
----------------------------
Customer reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
216 customer ratings
Top Reviews
Justin Reilly, JD
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favorites- incredibly awesome! Read this book!Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
The Coming Plague, written in 1995, is perhaps more timely than ever. It is a long book, but each chapter is a different outbreak the CDC handled or mishandled over the decades. since each chapter is a different outbreak, you can read them independently. So dont be overwhelmed bc its 800 pages. just means there's a lot of great shorter stories to choose from.
CDC handled some of these very well, even heroically. Some... not so much. Some in the latter category covered here are AIDS, toxic shock syndrome and legionnaires. Very well written. I learned so much from this book. By Laurie Garrett who won the Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on Ebola, which is in the book.
She basically predicted how the Ebola outbreak of 2014 would turn into a disaster, and it was written back in 1995. Just an incredibly awesome book. One of my all-time favorites.
51 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
C. Sessions
4.0 out of 5 stars Data heavyReviewed in the United States on March 30, 2020
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
How did we end up with SARS Cov2?
This will tell you how even though it ends in 2000. Our current situation was all ready brewing.
If you want a deep dive into the social, political and human reactions to public health, this is the book you need.
9 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Else-Marie T.
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific book - heavy reading about a serious subject - ...Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2016
Verified Purchase
Terrific book - heavy reading about a serious subject - not fiction. Thick book, historical and of importance in light of global warming which will greatly increase the possibilities of plagues. Viruses and bacteria continually evolve, so they don't belong just to the past, they are an ever-present huge challenge to mankind. They morph for survival in response to the measures man takes to combat them. My father worked for the US Public Health Service, World Health Org, Pan American Health Org, etc, and lived and traveled all over the world - we grew up in many countries so I found it a sit-on-the-edge of your seat experience reading this book. If you ever saw the PBS show on the Great Flu Pandemic you ought to see that - then you will understand the war of man against microbe/virus is a war where the microbe/virus is one step ahead of us. This "war" is why the medical profession urges vaccines be given when recommended, and why antibiotics shouldn't be used when really not needed.
17 people found this helpful
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Kat
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommendedReviewed in the United States on July 25, 2017
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Considering when this was written ... It's like the author had a crystal ball. This isn't light reading but really is a must. Head's up: you'll likely become very conscious about germs before you finish the first chapter, but in a good way.
11 people found this helpful
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WGE G'Dad
5.0 out of 5 stars A fact filled book about a very likely major problem.Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
This is a long book. It's pretty well written, but the main point sometimes is lost in the details. There are lots of quotable statistics, but they are packed into each chapter. If I were to highlight each important or quotable passage, more of the text would be highlighted than not. The main point of the book is that we are pushing humans into contact with viruses that have the potential to be massively destructive. If this continues, we will have a pandemic of biblical proportions.
As a supervisor, I often have people bring me problems. I would have liked it if this book had clearly stated what should be done to avoid the coming plague.
7 people found this helpful
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Frank Lynch
5.0 out of 5 stars Epidemiologists were my heroesReviewed in the United States on December 15, 2011
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
When I started this book years ago in the dead tree edition (and did not finish, due to its heft), I was stunned and overwhelmed by the stories which Garrett told about epidemiologists out in the field. The diseases were incredibly scary, and so the risks that these scientists exposed themselves to in order to save a small village, a hamlet, potentially a nation or continent... We're talking about people who want to better the world, and are willing to put their lives on the line to do so. I think my reading was before 9-11, when US society refocused its definition of hero onto first responders, SEALS, Ground Zero workers etc. But the heroism of these epidemiologists still needs to be noted: when you're out in the field and catch some incredibly contagious disease, they don't send you an airplane ticket to get home: they send a lunar landing module with airtight locks, put you and your module on a military transport, and get you to some place with sufficient sophistication to get you well and then home. Not only are you at risk of dying... But you have an invaluable skill set and can't be easily replaced.
These kinds of stories are in Garrett's book. But there are also others which will make you slap your head in astonishment. Like the CDC scientist who goes to County Cork to see if the retired nuns might have traces of a virus from the Ivory Coast when they were missionaries in the 1940's. And then CATCHES that virus after kissing the Blarney Stone right after one of the nuns.
The book is astonishing, wonderful, thought provoking. And now that it's on Kindle I can finish it, no longer burdened by its heft. Really looking forward to it.
21 people found this helpful
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Twain Mark
5.0 out of 5 stars It's amazing how much research went into the informationReviewed in the United States on October 11, 2014
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
About 70% done with this book. Some detailed parts can be a little over my head but not many. It's amazing how much research went into the information. Everything is footnoted and very well written. While "The Hot Zone" was a much faster read and mainly about Ebola, this book covers it all, viruses, parasites and bacteria. It covers the past and present problems and paints an excellent picture of where we're headed and what can and should be done. Since this was written a while ago, it's easy to see she was right on with many of her predictions. An excellent book.
9 people found this helpful
-----
Top international reviews
friend of crime fiction
5.0 out of 5 stars intriguing readingReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2016
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Laurie Garret is an excellent writer, who can mix scientific facts and captivating storylines with remarkable skill. In spite of lot of scientific information her books reads almost like thrillers. Very fascinating reading indeed! I previously read her Betrayal of trust and very much liked it. Highly recommend both books !
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Mr. Ashley Allen
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book, but I am now too scared to leave my flat...Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2013
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Could do with an update - finishes in the middle of the 1990s and I'm sure that there are a lot more nasty things that could be reported on, which would at least give my nightmares some much needed variety.
2 people found this helpful
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Sandra
5.0 out of 5 stars Readable & RelevantReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2013
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I purchased the book after reading reviews and highly recommend it to others interested in this field. I think it's suitable for novice readers and experts alike, as it's so well written. The chapter on the coming of HIV is gripping and it's hard to put the book down at times.
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tallan
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommend itReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Highly recommend that this is read by everyone - it really is a good insight into the dangers that this microscopic world can have upon the human race!
HelpfulReport abuse
----------------------
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Where's your next disease coming from? From anywhere in the world--from overflowing sewage in Cairo, from a war zone in Rwanda, from an energy-efficient office building in California, from a pig farm in China or North Carolina.
"Preparedness demands understanding," writes Pulitzer-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, and in this precursor to Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, she shows a clear understanding of the patterns lying beneath the new diseases in the headlines (AIDS, Lyme) and the old ones resurgent (tuberculosis, cholera).
As the human population explodes, ecologies collapse and simplify, and disease organisms move into the gaps. As globalization continues, diseases can move from one country to another as fast as an airplane can fly.
While the human race battles itself ... the advantage moves to the microbes' court. They are our predators and they will be victorious if we, Homo sapiens, do not learn how to live in a rational global village that affords the microbes few opportunities.
Her picture is not entirely bleak. Epidemics grow when a disease outbreak is amplified--by contaminated water supplies, by shared needles, by recirculated air, by prostitution. And controlling the amplifiers of disease is within our power; it's a matter of money, people, and will. --Mary Ellen Curtin
From Publishers Weekly
Garrett probes the human impact on the environment and the resulting emergence of new and mutating deadly viruses.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"A frightening vision of the future and a deeply unsettling one...a sober, scary book that not only limns the dangers posed by emerging diseases but also raises serious questions about two centuries worth of Enlightenment beliefs in science and technology and progress." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Like her role model Rachel Carson, whose 1962 Silent Spring woke up society to environmental poisoning, Garrett aims to dispel social and political complacency about the threat of old, new, and yet-unknown microbial catastrophes in a golbal ecology that links Bujumbura, Bangkok, and Boston more closely than anyone appreciates." Richard A. Knox, The Boston Globe
"Garrett has done a brilliant job of putting scientific work into layman's language, and the scariness of medical melodramas is offset by the excitement of scientific detection." —The New Yorker
"The book is ambitious, but it succeeds...[its] scope is encyclopedic, its mass of detail startling." —The Economist
"Garrett brilliantly develops her theme that repidly increasing dangers are being ignored. Her investigations have taken over a decade to complete, and her findings are meticulously discussed and distilled." — Richard Horton, The New York Review of Books
"Encyclopedic in detail, missionary in zeal, and disturbing in its message...The Coming Plague makes fascinating if troubling reading. It is an important contribution to our awareness of human ecology and the fragility of the relative biological well-being that many of us enjoy. Garrett has mastered an extraordinary amount of detail about the pathology, epidemiology, and human events surrounding dozens of complex diseases. She writes engagingly, carrying her themes as well as the reader's interest from outbreak to outbreak. —The Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Absorbing...the insights into the personalities and the stories behind new infectious diseases are fascinating. I have the greatest admiration for Laurie Garrett." —Abraham Verghese, M.D., author of In the Heartland: A Doctor's Story of a Town and Its People in the Age of AIDS
"A masterpiece of reporting and writing, The Coming Plague is the best and most thorough book on the terrifying emergence of new plagues. The level of detail is amazing, with fascinating portraits of the so-called 'disease cowboys,' the doctors and scientists who fight infectious diseases on the front lines. The Coming Plague is a must read for anyone interested in the biological fate of the human species." —Richard Preston, New York Times-bestselling author of The Hot Zone
Read more
About the Author
Laurie Garrett is a former senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1996 for a series of works published in Newsday, and has also been awarded the Polk and Peabody Prizes. She is the author of The Coming Plague, Betrayal of Trust, and Ebola: Story of an Outbreak.See less
Product details
Paperback: 768 pages
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition (October 1, 1995)
Language: English
More about the author
› Visit Amazon's Laurie Garrett Page
Follow
Biography
Laurie Garrett is the only writer ever to have been awarded all three of the Big "Ps" of journalism: the Peabody, the Polk, and the Pulitzer.
LATEST BOOK: I HEARD THE SIRENS SCREAM: How Americans Responded to the 9/11 and Anthrax Attacks, available exclusively as an e-book.
WEBSITE: Visit www.lauriegarrett.com
Her journalistic efforts at KPFA-FM radio in northern California garnered the 1977 George Foster Peabody broadcast journalism award, for a series called "Science Story." In 1996 Garrett received the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the 1995 Ebola virus epidemic in Kikwit, Zaire. The following year she was awarded the George C. Polk award for a series of more than 30 articles she published in Newsday, documenting the collapse of health and rise of HIV, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and dozens of other diseases in the former Soviet countries. Her second Polk Award was given in recognition of the reporting in BETRAYAL OF TRUST: The Collapse of Global Public Health.
Laurie Garrett was in graduate school studying immunology when she started reporting, as a sideline, on Berkley radio station KPFA-FM. After a year of this hobby, including the co-production of a radio series, "Science Story," Garrett and colleague Adi Gevins were awarded the George Foster Peabody Award for Broadcasting, the highest such honor for radio. Garrett continued working at KPFA, in multiple jobs including management, reporting, documentary production, and disc jockey. She received multiple awards during this period, including the so-called "Major Award" in broadcasting from the Edwin Howard Armstrong Foundation.
In 1979 Garrett spent a year covering a variety of stories overseas, including the SALT-II nuclear disarmament negotiations between the US and USSR, the World Food Summit in Rome, civil war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), the anti-apartheid activities in the African frontline states, and a long list of outbreaks and disease issues across sub-Saharan Africa. During this period she resided primarily in Lusaka, Zambia, reporting for a variety of news outlets, from Pacifica Radio to the BBC.
From 1980-88 Garrett worked as a Science Correspondent for National Public Radio, based first in San Francisco and then Los Angeles. Her work at NPR, which featured detailed coverage of the unfolding HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US and Africa, was honored with a long list of awards and recognition. Garrett began covering the AIDS epidemic in June 1981, and continuously chronicled the horrible spread of the disease and its toll for more than 20 years.
In mid-1988 Garrett left NPR to join the science writing and foreign desk staffs of Newsday, then the third largest daily newspaper in America. Garrett covered a diverse range of stories all over the world, including: the spread of HIV around Lake Victoria, plague in India, Chernobyl radiation illness in Ukraine, toxic waste in El Salvador, discovery of ancient tombs in the Egyptian desserts, and SARS in Beijing.
In 1996 Garrett was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for her coverage of the 1995 Ebola virus epidemic in Zaire. In addition to the "three P's of Journalism" Garrett's work at Newsday was honored with four awards from the Overseas Press Club of America, and a long list of recognitions from a variety of professional journalism societies. In 2000 Garrett shared with the New York Times' Larry Altman the first Victor Cohn Award for Medical Science Reporting, from the National Association of Science Writers (NASW). Garrett served as President of NASW for two years while at Newsday.
The EDUCATION
Garrett was born in Los Angeles, a 5th generation Los Angeleno. Garrett is a proud product of public education, having attended public schools and universities in California. She graduated with honors in biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Garrett attended graduate school in the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology at UC Berkeley and did research at Stanford University in the laboratory of Dr. Leonard Herzenberg. Her PhD studies, mentored by Dr. Leon Wofsy, focused on measuring T cell responses to variable stimuli.
Garrett did not complete her PhD studies, as her reporting "hobby" in local radio proved far more compelling. Laurie Garrett never attended a school of journalism, though she served on the faculty of the Schools of Journalism at UC Berkeley (academic year 1997-98) and Columbia University (2001).
In academic year 1992-3 Garrett was a Fellow in the Harvard School of Public Health, where she learned a tremendous amount of health science that continues to guide her work today.
In 1995 Garrett received the University of California Alumni Achievement Award.
In 1998 Laurie Garrett was awarded a PhD by Illinois Wesleyan University, Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
In 2002 Garrett was awarded a second PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell: Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
In 2007 the University of Minnesota named Laurie Garrett a member of the Delta Omega Society, an honorary public health society.
In 2009 Garrett was awarded a PhD from Georgetown University, Scientiae Doctorum, honoris causa.
In 2011 Laurie Garrett was named one of the "45 Greatest Alumni" of the University of California in Santa Cruz, on the 45th anniversary of the school's creation.
The COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
In 2004 Laurie Garrett left Newsday to join the think tank staff of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. She now runs the Council's Global Health Program, and serves as the Senior Fellow for Global Health. Garrett has written several reports and articles including: HIV and National Security: Where are the Links?, A Council Report (Council on Foreign Relations Press, 2005), 'The Next Pandemic?' (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2005), 'The Lessons of HIV/AIDS' (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2005), 'The Challenge of Global Health' (Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007), The Future of Foreign Assistance Amid Global Economic and Financial Crisis, A Council on Foreign Relations Action Plan (2009),and CastroCare in Crisis (Foreign Affairs July/August 2010).
AND FINALLY (in the first person)
I am an avid urban cyclist, using a 25 year old Specialized Crossroads for commuting and errands, and a custom titanium Merlin road bike for the real rides. I avidly support the greening of NYC, expansion of bike paths and lowering Brooklyn's carbon footprint.
For several years I was a partner with Havens Wines, located in the Napa Valley. The wines were magnificent, and being in the wine biz -- even merely as one of 14 partners --- was loads of fun. Sadly, we sold Havens Wines a few years ago, and the buyers couldn't make a go of it: Havens no longer exists. But I retain great admiration for skilled wine makers, and love of gourmet meals lubricated with fantastic wines and shared with great friends.
For more than 20 years I have been a strong supporter of the arts in New York, especially performances at BAM. As a BAM patron, I attend as many of the Brooklyn Academy of Music concerts, plays, dances and performances as my schedule will allow.
Brooklyn rules.
Show Less
----------------------------
Customer reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
216 customer ratings
Top Reviews
Justin Reilly, JD
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favorites- incredibly awesome! Read this book!Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
The Coming Plague, written in 1995, is perhaps more timely than ever. It is a long book, but each chapter is a different outbreak the CDC handled or mishandled over the decades. since each chapter is a different outbreak, you can read them independently. So dont be overwhelmed bc its 800 pages. just means there's a lot of great shorter stories to choose from.
CDC handled some of these very well, even heroically. Some... not so much. Some in the latter category covered here are AIDS, toxic shock syndrome and legionnaires. Very well written. I learned so much from this book. By Laurie Garrett who won the Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on Ebola, which is in the book.
She basically predicted how the Ebola outbreak of 2014 would turn into a disaster, and it was written back in 1995. Just an incredibly awesome book. One of my all-time favorites.
51 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
C. Sessions
4.0 out of 5 stars Data heavyReviewed in the United States on March 30, 2020
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
How did we end up with SARS Cov2?
This will tell you how even though it ends in 2000. Our current situation was all ready brewing.
If you want a deep dive into the social, political and human reactions to public health, this is the book you need.
9 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Else-Marie T.
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific book - heavy reading about a serious subject - ...Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2016
Verified Purchase
Terrific book - heavy reading about a serious subject - not fiction. Thick book, historical and of importance in light of global warming which will greatly increase the possibilities of plagues. Viruses and bacteria continually evolve, so they don't belong just to the past, they are an ever-present huge challenge to mankind. They morph for survival in response to the measures man takes to combat them. My father worked for the US Public Health Service, World Health Org, Pan American Health Org, etc, and lived and traveled all over the world - we grew up in many countries so I found it a sit-on-the-edge of your seat experience reading this book. If you ever saw the PBS show on the Great Flu Pandemic you ought to see that - then you will understand the war of man against microbe/virus is a war where the microbe/virus is one step ahead of us. This "war" is why the medical profession urges vaccines be given when recommended, and why antibiotics shouldn't be used when really not needed.
17 people found this helpful
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Kat
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommendedReviewed in the United States on July 25, 2017
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Considering when this was written ... It's like the author had a crystal ball. This isn't light reading but really is a must. Head's up: you'll likely become very conscious about germs before you finish the first chapter, but in a good way.
11 people found this helpful
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WGE G'Dad
5.0 out of 5 stars A fact filled book about a very likely major problem.Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
This is a long book. It's pretty well written, but the main point sometimes is lost in the details. There are lots of quotable statistics, but they are packed into each chapter. If I were to highlight each important or quotable passage, more of the text would be highlighted than not. The main point of the book is that we are pushing humans into contact with viruses that have the potential to be massively destructive. If this continues, we will have a pandemic of biblical proportions.
As a supervisor, I often have people bring me problems. I would have liked it if this book had clearly stated what should be done to avoid the coming plague.
7 people found this helpful
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Frank Lynch
5.0 out of 5 stars Epidemiologists were my heroesReviewed in the United States on December 15, 2011
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
When I started this book years ago in the dead tree edition (and did not finish, due to its heft), I was stunned and overwhelmed by the stories which Garrett told about epidemiologists out in the field. The diseases were incredibly scary, and so the risks that these scientists exposed themselves to in order to save a small village, a hamlet, potentially a nation or continent... We're talking about people who want to better the world, and are willing to put their lives on the line to do so. I think my reading was before 9-11, when US society refocused its definition of hero onto first responders, SEALS, Ground Zero workers etc. But the heroism of these epidemiologists still needs to be noted: when you're out in the field and catch some incredibly contagious disease, they don't send you an airplane ticket to get home: they send a lunar landing module with airtight locks, put you and your module on a military transport, and get you to some place with sufficient sophistication to get you well and then home. Not only are you at risk of dying... But you have an invaluable skill set and can't be easily replaced.
These kinds of stories are in Garrett's book. But there are also others which will make you slap your head in astonishment. Like the CDC scientist who goes to County Cork to see if the retired nuns might have traces of a virus from the Ivory Coast when they were missionaries in the 1940's. And then CATCHES that virus after kissing the Blarney Stone right after one of the nuns.
The book is astonishing, wonderful, thought provoking. And now that it's on Kindle I can finish it, no longer burdened by its heft. Really looking forward to it.
21 people found this helpful
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Twain Mark
5.0 out of 5 stars It's amazing how much research went into the informationReviewed in the United States on October 11, 2014
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
About 70% done with this book. Some detailed parts can be a little over my head but not many. It's amazing how much research went into the information. Everything is footnoted and very well written. While "The Hot Zone" was a much faster read and mainly about Ebola, this book covers it all, viruses, parasites and bacteria. It covers the past and present problems and paints an excellent picture of where we're headed and what can and should be done. Since this was written a while ago, it's easy to see she was right on with many of her predictions. An excellent book.
9 people found this helpful
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Top international reviews
friend of crime fiction
5.0 out of 5 stars intriguing readingReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2016
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Laurie Garret is an excellent writer, who can mix scientific facts and captivating storylines with remarkable skill. In spite of lot of scientific information her books reads almost like thrillers. Very fascinating reading indeed! I previously read her Betrayal of trust and very much liked it. Highly recommend both books !
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Mr. Ashley Allen
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book, but I am now too scared to leave my flat...Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2013
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Could do with an update - finishes in the middle of the 1990s and I'm sure that there are a lot more nasty things that could be reported on, which would at least give my nightmares some much needed variety.
2 people found this helpful
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Sandra
5.0 out of 5 stars Readable & RelevantReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2013
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I purchased the book after reading reviews and highly recommend it to others interested in this field. I think it's suitable for novice readers and experts alike, as it's so well written. The chapter on the coming of HIV is gripping and it's hard to put the book down at times.
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tallan
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommend itReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Highly recommend that this is read by everyone - it really is a good insight into the dangers that this microscopic world can have upon the human race!
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