Review of “Global Health Strategy: A Blueprint for the Future,” by Lawrence O. Gostin, 2021. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Cloth.
Professor Gostin is a worldwide expert on global health and on pandemics. He talks about several different illnesses—from Ebola to COVID-19. He “knows his stuff,” it is clear from the book.
Dr. Gostin works for the World Health Organization (WHO) and is on the faculty at Georgetown University. He represents the world of science and facts when it comes to the dangers of pandemics, the use of vaccines, the history of recent viruses, and the possible ways to avoid the mistakes of how COVID-19 and some other dangers were handled.
Gostin includes the political in all of his explanations of how things work—and don’t work—during pandemics… from the mistakes made by President Trump (p. 30) and the great potential for answers that can come from informed and specialist groups like the WHO and its panels and experts…
President Biden, the first day in office, got us back “in good” with the powers that be regarding worldwide health dangers and how to head them off.
There have been many political roadblocks, indeed, to heading off viruses “at the pass” and there are many reasons—stigma, power struggles, fears of blame, fear of loss of income from medications and vaccines. The list goes on very long… and Gostin covers a great deal of ground with his explanations of malaria and zika and many other foes.
Gostin provides great detail in his explanations on the science side, the research side, the political side, and more. This is dense reading and it would not hurt to have a huge amount of background, experience, and education in virology—like Gostin does. However, not all of us do, so we will have to power through the reading of this book to get something out of it.
This is a book many readers could read a second time to get more of the technical information straight. How one individual can cover all the different “sides” mentioned above is amazing. This is the kind of brilliant researcher, writer, and professor some people dislike greatly. He knows a lot about all the angles involved in pandemics.
Gostin is insightful about how recent events (see Ebola, see COVID-19) have unfolded...
He is also gifted in his visions of what is coming—or might be coming—in the future (https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/index.html#:~:text=Ebola%20Virus%20Disease%20(EVD)%20is,person%20infected%20with%20Ebola%20virus.).
COVID-19 is of course very much on our minds currently—from vaccines and boosters to the origin of the virus and our collective memory of where we were, where we hid, what we missed, and other perspectives people want to share so much (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html). Gostin is already thinking ahead. We are lucky we have in “in our corner” in this battle against worldwide illness and potential death.
Gostin is insightful in his recommendations about possible future solutions—and his ideas about how to ward off disasters coming “down the road” and in some cases not too far down that road.
Interesting to note is that since the book was written in 2020 (and published in 2021) and includes a brief warning about something called the Monkeypox virus—now being called “MPOX” by the CDC. Gostin mentions that this is a virus which could suddenly flare up and is therefore something we need to watch (p. 30).
He was right.
He could not have known (did he know?) that the MPOX virus would spring up with the men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) communities (gay, bisexual, down low) and that the treatment of it would be complicated by stigma (Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) (cdc.gov)). When MPOX suddenly blossomed months back, the (CDC) rolled out—with the vaccine—the news that it was concentrated among members of the MSM communities. This news created more stigma than needed around the virus and kept many, many men (and women) from getting vaccinated.
Messages are so very important. Of course, now the CDC has changed the name to “MPOX” to move away from the stigma (https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/index.html). Too late, obviously, damage done, many gay men and many women married to men who have sex with other men already started getting the virus.
The book is demanding—and it has three brilliant “Desktop Exercises” at the end for readers to work out. These could be done as a group or alone. These homework or classroom activities are scenarios in which a pandemic is about to start—or has in fact started—and then you as a professional in whichever role is assigned in that homework have to start making decisions about what to do…
Should you convene a group? Contact another world government to try to get more information from them? Issue an announcement? Try to get cooperation from another world government? Issue a state directive?
I would prefer the group solutions that could come from these. I would enjoy working on this book’s other chapters with a book club—or at least with other professionals also.
Who should read this book? Medical professionals of a wide range of specialties of course should read the book, plus policymakers and stakeholders of major financial and governmental resources should read it. Persons involved with vaccination and communication topics need to read it. Advocates for refugees, the homeless, the disenfranchised, and the poor must read it.
I recommend this book to all serious professionals in the last paragraph and others who want to help others—and who want to work from an educated standpoint about the suitability and safety of vaccines, the dangers of viruses in general, and the dangers of political and financial complications to keeping the world healthy—and alive.
This is dense and demanding reading for the non-specialist but worth the hard work powering through the material. This is a way for you to arm yourself for battle!