Lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic can help confront future epidemics

Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLMSep 1 2023

Where did COVID-19 originate? Prof Angus Dalgleish shows that the virus that emerged in Wuhan, China in 2019 had been modified in a laboratory to make it more infectious (for the construction of a more effective vaccine). Unfortunately the virus appears to have leaked out of the institute laboratory and so caused some seven million deaths worldwide. Professor Dalgleish's conclusion has recently been vindicated by others, including science author Matt Ridley and public bodies like the US Senate, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the US Department of Energy.

Let us remember the lessons of the coronavirus to usher in a new era on a global scale with different personal and collective behavior so that everyone, not just a few, enjoys the dignified life that is their due. We have to remember that we cannot go back to "pre-COVID". We have to keep in mind that the circumstances before the pandemic most likely contributed in some way to the situation as have had to live it. A radical change of course is indispensable and urgent…"

~Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Former Director-General of UNESCO and Former Member of the European Parliament.

A multi-author volume, the chapters in Evaluating a Pandemic

In this book, the COVID-19 outbreak is compared with previous epidemics that have occurred in the past. The aim of this book is to provide a review of the situation from 2020 to 2022, and to consider how to react in future epidemics. Readers will find the contrast between the economic consequences of lockdown in Sweden and the UK particularly illuminating.

This volume begins with the source of the SARS-COV-2 virus, before proceeding to analyze the high-speed development, manufacturing and distribution of 'classical' and novel vaccines against COVID-19. It also presents an assessment of the diagnostics used to identify infected patients and prevent the spread of the virus to those at risk of severe disease and death, and how lessons learned from them can help us confront future epidemic and endemic diseases. Evaluating a Pandemic includes scholarly analyses of various countries' responses to the pandemic and their respective economic and sociological aftermaths, and discusses what we can learn from them.

This publication is a valuable resource for scientists, clinicians, psychologists, economists, bureaucrats, and politicians who deal with or write policies in preparation for future endemic and/or pandemic diseases. Historians and sociologists may benefit from the information collected and presented within.

Evaluating a Pandemic retails for US$78 / £60 (hardcover) and is also available in electronic formats. To order or know more about the book, visit http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/13039.