The Big One

How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics

By: Michael T. Osterholm PhD MPH PhD MPH, Mark Olshaker

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

As bad as Covid-19 was, the next pandemic could be worse—but we have the tools to prepare, as revealed in this urgent, gripping warning by the New York Times bestselling authors of Deadliest Enemy.

The Covid-19 pandemic was the most devastating natural event of the last century, killing more than 7 million people around the globe, straining the fabric of societies internationally, and shaking the foundations of the global economy. And yet, as horrifying as the experience was, Covid-19 was not actually “the Big One” — the dreaded potential pandemic that haunts the nightmares of epidemiologists and public health officials everywhere, and which will alter life across the world on every meaningful level unless we are ready to deal with it. Indeed, even as we learn to live with Covid-19 and continue to recover from its worst effects, the next pandemic is already lurking around the corner—and it may very well be worse.

In The Big One, founding director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker examine past pandemics, highlighting the ways societies both succeeded and failed to address them; trace the Covid-19 pandemic and evaluate how it was handled; and look to the future, projecting what the next pandemics might look like and what must be done to mitigate them. Drawing on years of high-level research as well as cutting-edge analysis and an innovative hypothetical scenario threaded throughout each chapter, The Big One is a gripping, comprehensive, and urgent wake-up call. Because Covid-19 was just a taste of what’s to come. If we’re going to survive the next big pandemic, we need to be prepared.

Critic reviews

“With his unique blend of knowledge, communications skills, and Midwestern forthrightness, Michael Osterholm has made himself indispensable in the fight to understand and overcome global infections. In The Big One, he marshals this depth and breadth to prepare us for the struggle that surely will come.”—Peter Hotez, Baylor College of Medicine, and author of The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science

“If there was one person to turn for future pandemic readiness, it would be Michael Osterholm, one of the world’s leading epidemiologists. In The Big One, a landmark book, he, along with Mark Olshaker, provide a remarkably clear-eyed, science-driven, and comprehensive preventive approach.”—Eric Topol, MD, PhD, author of Deep Medicine and Super Agers

“Mike Osterholm is an invaluable expert whose tremendous knowledge and humility also make him a trustworthy guide. In The Big One, Osterholm and Mark Olshaker take us through a tabletop exercise about a highly contagious, airborne virus capable of killing millions. We can only hope those in power heed its guidance.”—Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, author of Reinventing American Healthcare

"Three pandemic viruses have swept across the globe in the last 20 years. There will be another pandemic. The only question is when and how severe. At once thrilling and haunting, The Big One provides a life-saving guide for an inevitable event."—Paul A. Offit, MD, author of Tell Me When It's Over and Autism’s False Prophets

“A riveting warning—and a roadmap. In The Big One, infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm and bestselling author Mark Olshaker deliver a gripping, scientifically grounded account of a plausible—and perhaps inevitable—global crisis. Drawing on decades of experience, they reveal the political, logistical, and human challenges behind pandemic response, and show how we can do better next time. This book is a wake-up call we can't afford to ignore.”—Governor Michael O. Leavitt, Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services

“The Big One is an extraordinary book. It's part thrilling disaster movie script, part insightful history of public health, part personal story. It's also the best after-action report on Covid-19 yet, along with the best advice on how both individuals and government can survive the next one—and there will be a next one. It's a book you won't just read. You'll reread it and learn something new each time.”—John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza

Spraying truth to power to save lives

All good but done chapters were a bit too long. Could get to the point with fewer examples All rise good

Terrible narrator - great book

Excellent story construction, using table top exercise ays a basis for content development. The narrator is TERRIBLE: weird, inappropriate slow downs and word emphasis. If the book’s content hadn’t been so interesting, I would have quit.

Important well written and detailed

Comprehensive and not to be missed if you really want to know what happened and what needs to be done that wasn’t and isn’t. A must read. Sadly ,those that should read it probably won’t.

Horrific and predictable

The hypothetical Big One is a logical extension of what we've already gone through over the last five years. And the authors draw extensively from what happened and what should have happened during Covid. Yet I fear no lessons have been learned and planning for The Big One has already gone out the window on the instructions of RFK Jr.

Hell awaits!!!

The review of SARS COV2 2019-present

I liked the candid review of every step in the Covid epidemic. It was far more complicated than using standard influenza prevention measures. The degree it overwhelmed our medical systems was astonishing and complicated by an ignorant Trump government hell bent on sparing business pain by sacrificing humans.

in 2020, Americans were dropping like flies, but the current government does not seem to not care about preparedness. Hope that unemployed CDC talent can take jobs in other countries to save us when the big one materializes.

For now, keep a stockpile of N95's, boot Republicans from all levels of government and hope for the best.