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Three Seconds Until Midnight
In 1918, a strain of the Influenza virus mutated to transform itself into a rampant pulmonary disease, and it became one of the three deadliest plagues ever recorded in human history. It will happen again, it may involve a strain of flu that is worse, and it will involve population densities that were not a factor in 1918. Under the current U.S. National Pandemic Influenza Plan, some 123 million Americans will not have access to a protective vaccine or antiviral drug, until the peak of the epidemic is almost past. This book describes other major faults and assumptions in US planning and it describes several major steps that must be taken to improve readiness for the next major lethal pandemic event.
971 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 3, 2019
137 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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June 14, 2020- "The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb.”
- Read about the scientists who saw COVID-19 coming:
https://theatlantic.com/health/archiv...
June 5, 2020
I purchased this book when all things corona blew up near the middle of March. I plowed through the first half quickly, set it aside for a couple months or more then finished it.
Published in 2019, it is eerily predictive of all that we have seen so far. I am no expert, but the three authors seem to do a thorough (I would say exhaustive) job of covering all the concerns regarding pandemics and possible solutions (or maybe better, mitigations). A great overview with lots of detail and some technical stuff that is explained pretty well. I see this as more of a handbook for policy makers although it does provide practical information for the average citizen as well.
I do not know if the authors have been invited to be on any task forces related to the current pandemic, but in my view they should have a seat at the table. There resumes are as long as my arm and their knowledge of matters surrounding the subject is very solid based on what we've experienced so far.
The book (apparently self-published) loses a star because it desperately needs editing. Not only a fair amount of mistakes in the text, but the general formatting also, leaves much to be desired. This should not deter the interested reader from diving in, but it is annoying.
Published in 2019, it is eerily predictive of all that we have seen so far. I am no expert, but the three authors seem to do a thorough (I would say exhaustive) job of covering all the concerns regarding pandemics and possible solutions (or maybe better, mitigations). A great overview with lots of detail and some technical stuff that is explained pretty well. I see this as more of a handbook for policy makers although it does provide practical information for the average citizen as well.
I do not know if the authors have been invited to be on any task forces related to the current pandemic, but in my view they should have a seat at the table. There resumes are as long as my arm and their knowledge of matters surrounding the subject is very solid based on what we've experienced so far.
The book (apparently self-published) loses a star because it desperately needs editing. Not only a fair amount of mistakes in the text, but the general formatting also, leaves much to be desired. This should not deter the interested reader from diving in, but it is annoying.
March 11, 2020
Terrific book. BUT IT NEEDS AN INDEX!!!
February 12, 2020
I'm not far into the book yet, but will leave a review of what I have read so far so anyone interested in the book will have some information.
The author does a good job of explaining what a virus is, how it works and it is relatively clear for a non science person to understand. He also draws on information from previously written books on pandemics, including the book The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History", which I have already read and is a good book also. Steven Hatfill gives plenty of credit to all sources he used to write his book, which is good.
The writing style is easy to follow and he reexplains things when needed.
Now for my negative - though I don't know how much of this is in the control of the author - the Kindle version is in need of a better proofreader. I haven't noticed spelling errors, but I am coming across words that are used in completely unnecessary ways. Adding the words "to" or "as" in a sentence when they shouldn't be used at all. Also, I have come across 2 paragraphs that were completely repeated just a page later. Now, I am no grammar expert, but this bugs me. It's not enough to make me stop reading, but I really hope the author sees this and fixes the issue. The nice thing with Kindle is you are able to mark the errors and send the information to Amazon so corrections can be made.
There also seems to be an overabundance of commas. Not that there are run on sentences, just a lot of commas.
Also, given what is happening with the Coronavirus this is a timely book with some food for thought.
As of February 9th 2020 I've decided to put this book aside. The editing errors are making it a bit difficult to get through, and the subject matter is not good for reading right before bed. This is a better daytime read.
The author does a good job of explaining what a virus is, how it works and it is relatively clear for a non science person to understand. He also draws on information from previously written books on pandemics, including the book The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History", which I have already read and is a good book also. Steven Hatfill gives plenty of credit to all sources he used to write his book, which is good.
The writing style is easy to follow and he reexplains things when needed.
Now for my negative - though I don't know how much of this is in the control of the author - the Kindle version is in need of a better proofreader. I haven't noticed spelling errors, but I am coming across words that are used in completely unnecessary ways. Adding the words "to" or "as" in a sentence when they shouldn't be used at all. Also, I have come across 2 paragraphs that were completely repeated just a page later. Now, I am no grammar expert, but this bugs me. It's not enough to make me stop reading, but I really hope the author sees this and fixes the issue. The nice thing with Kindle is you are able to mark the errors and send the information to Amazon so corrections can be made.
There also seems to be an overabundance of commas. Not that there are run on sentences, just a lot of commas.
Also, given what is happening with the Coronavirus this is a timely book with some food for thought.
As of February 9th 2020 I've decided to put this book aside. The editing errors are making it a bit difficult to get through, and the subject matter is not good for reading right before bed. This is a better daytime read.
January 25, 2023
Academic and interesting, with a strong connection to what we are experiencing with viruses, like Covid. Warning, it will help if you have a health science background. I do, and still learned alot.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews