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Devi Lalita Sridhar
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Preventable: How a Pandemic Changed the World & How to Stop the Next One Paperback – July 21, 2022

by Devi Sridhar (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 162 ratings
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Professor Devi Sridhar has risen to prominence for her vital roles in communicating science to the public and speaking truth to power. In Preventable she highlights lessons learned from outbreaks past and present in a narrative that traces the COVID-19 pandemic - including her personal experience as a scientist - and sets out a vision for how we can better protect ourselves from the inevitable health crises to come. In gripping and heartfelt prose, Sridhar exposes the varied realities of those affected and puts you in the room with key decision makers at crucial moments. She vibrantly conveys the twists and turns of a plot that saw: deadlier variants emerge (contrary to the predictions of social media pundits who argued it would mutate to a milder form); countries with weak health systems like Senegal and Vietnam fare better than countries like the US and UK (which were consistently ranked as the most prepared); and the quickest development of game-changing vaccines in history (and their unfair distribution).
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  1. Print length
    432 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Viking
  4. Publication date
    July 21, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.3 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0241510546
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0241510544
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Devi Sridhar is Professor and Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh. She has served as a policy advisor for the WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO and the Scottish, UK and German governments. Devi writes for the Guardian and regularly appears on broadcast media. This is her first book for a general readership.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking (July 21, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241510546
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241510544
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.14 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.3 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 162 ratings

About the author

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Devi Lalita Sridhar

Devi Lalita Sridhar

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Devi Sridhar is Professor and Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. She directs the Global Health Governance Programme in the Centre for Global Health Research. She holds a DPhil and MPhil from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a B.S. from the University of Miami in the Honours Medical Program.

Before joining the University of Edinburgh, Devi held positions at Oxford University, including:

2011-12 Associate Professor in Global Health Politics and a Fellow at Wolfson College

2007-11 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, All Souls College

2006-7 Postdoctoral Researcher at the Global Economic Governance Programme

Her work is concentrated in three areas: understanding the complexities of how international health organisations work, the financing of global public health and developing better tools for priority-setting in global health management.

You can follow her work on twitter: @devisridhar

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
162 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

N. Sivasothi
5.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive and accessible summary of our two year (and counting) pandemic
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2022
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Having a network of biology friends, we followed the news from the pandemic and attended seminars to function effectively and look after family, friends and our wards, in education and elsewhere. But there’s been so much over more than two years and hard to recall it all.

The experiences from SARS and bird flu prepared us, and here is a book which will ensure we do learn even more from this much longer pandemic. Just like climate change, we need to imbibe the lessons to influence out society.

Every college student should know this, and Devi Sridhar has provided a tool. Hope she gets some rest, and gets to see more otters.
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clarence Koh
1.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Read. But I disagree with many of her points.
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2022
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I had a 15 hour flight. I am a clinician (MBBS, MRCP) and had sunk my teeth (and almost broke them) into statistics with a basic math degree (MSc Mathematics for Teachers, real analysis, laplacians, ODE, probability, OR etc). I am not an eminently qualified specialist nor an expert modeller. But I had trained in the same trenches of many of those who fought the pandemic. i.e. 32 hour house call shifts, A&E and ICU duties. The pandemic found me halfway in my math studies though I did put some work in covid facilities and experienced the science shift under my feet.

Nobody knew how the pandemic would pan out. No one. It's easy and a cheap shot to cast stones after the fact and blame the politicians and worship "science" whatever that means, science is but a collection of "informed" opinions. which is often subjective. Even "scientists" were often at odds with each other. No one knew for sure if the vaccine would lead to potentiation of an immune response as in the case of Dengue worsening the illness or if it would lead to a "cure". No one knew if there would be sterilising immunity, which I felt there wasn't (based on gross public data trends as well as basic immunology) and we know now there isn't. So the concept of herd immunity is not relevant and was not relevant either.

Trump could have done better. The same can be said of any human. But his removal of red tape made the mRNA vaccines possible quickly. That alone did the world a huge favour. I am ambivalent about forced locked downs. Sweden in her book did poorly. But the proper epidemiological way to account is excess deaths rather than deaths by covid which is hard to define. The Economist published a list of countries and their excess deaths during the covid period. Sweden didn't fair too badly. Below Hong Kong which is part of China and had aggressive lockdowns.

This is my first book review. Usually I let my purchases do the reviewing. Were she a journalist, I would have read and disagreed and it would have ended there just like reading any other divergent opinion. But she put herself as a scientist, disagreeing with some of the clinicians advisors and moreover implying gender prejudice. I don't agree with everything every clinician or mathematician say. But I had dipped my feet into both and can sympathise with the divergent and stressful decisions made from a technical standpoint. I too did mathematical modelling when I did military service in the pandemic and was responsible for silo-ing covid spread cases for my unit. Whilst it turned out alright with minimal disruptions, it never eluded me for one moment that I could have made wrong decisions and faced an uncontrollable outbreak. It might be that all the cards were played right and things still turn out badly.

I don't know how medical anthropology fits into pandemic management and control. Operations research, logistics supply chain management, statistical-mathematical modelling, obviously medical training all makes immediate sense to me as expertise to enlist for pandemic management.
3 people found this helpful
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David W.
1.0 out of 5 stars Garbage
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2023
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Top reviews from other countries

Rich
5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive account from global public health expert
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 30, 2022
Verified Purchase
There are numerous reasons that make this account stand out:

The author:
- has extremely relevant expertise in global public health
- had close insight to the operation of multiple government advisory structures
- openly spoke unfiltered truth to power when things were going badly
- has the vision required to bring together the bigger picture of worldwide responses and lessons
- has the talent to convey it all in an easy to read format (and with humility)
- clearly actually cares about ALL impacts and aspects of the pandemic

Highly recommended for those interested in understanding what we actually know about what happened and what could and should be improved.

NB: Beware bad reviews from people who have never bought or read the book! An intelligent female is an obvious threat to some :)
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Rich
5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive account from global public health expert
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 30, 2022
There are numerous reasons that make this account stand out:

The author:
- has extremely relevant expertise in global public health
- had close insight to the operation of multiple government advisory structures
- openly spoke unfiltered truth to power when things were going badly
- has the vision required to bring together the bigger picture of worldwide responses and lessons
- has the talent to convey it all in an easy to read format (and with humility)
- clearly actually cares about ALL impacts and aspects of the pandemic

Highly recommended for those interested in understanding what we actually know about what happened and what could and should be improved.

NB: Beware bad reviews from people who have never bought or read the book! An intelligent female is an obvious threat to some :)
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Kim Harding
5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 1, 2022
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This book is clearly and authoritatively written, in a very accessible style. Prof. Devi Sridhar takes the reader on a journey, explaining how the pandemic came about (although clearly acknowledging that we still don't know the origin of SARS-CoV-2) and the global response to it. How and why some countries were better able to cope early on and why they struggled later. The story of the rapid development of vaccines is also fascinating, again highlighting the importance of international co-operation. By the end of the book, the reader is better equipped to understand the nature of the changes in the pandemic and where things went wrong.
Every world leader should read this book, as should everyone with a vote.
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Satisfied customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Tells you everything about covid the govt won’t
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2023
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It’s a must read as we traverse the covid inquiry. If only it had been published in 2019!
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Dr. Surendrasingh Nundoo.MBBS.[1967 ]
5.0 out of 5 stars Professor Global health shows how building blocks HELP Health for All countries signatory to UN
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2023
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To unfold decades of hindrances of finance , benevolent foundations and good governance dither when personal country health overrides global interest regarding vaccines , PPE"s and funding to lower income countries come to view . ' my country first v/s global interest ". Unite for Humanity !
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Jane M.
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read pandemic account by a brilliant professor.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2022
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Well written, informative, addictive, and 1st class author - thanks so much Devi, (and for ur reliability and consistency of info and reassurance throughout pandemic) - all much appreciated.
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