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Cover image of One Health and the Politics of COVID-19
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One Health and the Politics of COVID-19

Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP

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Unpacks the mysteries of COVID-19's origins to impart important lessons for future outbreaks.

Unpacking the mysteries of COVID-19's origins to impart important lessons for future outbreaks.

In this timely book, leading public health expert Laura H. Kahn uses the comprehensive One Health approach to investigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept of "One Health" recognizes the interconnected links among the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment. By comparing the history, science, and clinical presentations of three different coronaviruses—SARS-CoV-1, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19...

Unpacks the mysteries of COVID-19's origins to impart important lessons for future outbreaks.

Unpacking the mysteries of COVID-19's origins to impart important lessons for future outbreaks.

In this timely book, leading public health expert Laura H. Kahn uses the comprehensive One Health approach to investigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept of "One Health" recognizes the interconnected links among the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment. By comparing the history, science, and clinical presentations of three different coronaviruses—SARS-CoV-1, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)—Kahn uncovers insights with important repercussions for how to prepare for and avoid future pandemics.

The One Health approach is a useful framework for examining the outbreak of COVID-19. Understanding the origins of this zoonotic disease requires examining the environmental and molecular biological factors that allowed the virus to spread to humans. Kahn investigates the many ways in which the wild animal trade, wet markets, and the camel industry contributed to the spread of earlier coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-1 and MERS. The book also explores the biosafety, biosecurity, and bioethics implications of gain-of-function research on pandemic potential pathogens. This important book is a must-read to understand the history, science, and geopolitics of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reviews

Reviews

This book challenges One Health's most pernicious dogma—that nature is necessarily deadlier than the consequences of human hubris. The book is especially courageous as it criticizes leading contemporary scientific powerholders who support unnecessarily risky virological work. Trust in science requires ethics and transparency.

One Health was Laura Kahn's brainchild. She now shows us the prescience of this idea as applied to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. With this frank, knowledgeable guide, Kahn explains the interplay of ecology, politics, and (perhaps) hubris that gave us the last pandemic, and which may bring us the next.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
176
ISBN
9781421449326
Illustration Description
1 b&w illus
Table of Contents

Preface
1. Introduction
Dimensions One and Two
2. Domestic and Wild Animals
3. Environments and Ecosystems
4. Humans
5. Molecular Biology of Coronaviruses
Dimension Three
6. Gain-of Function Research

Preface
1. Introduction
Dimensions One and Two
2. Domestic and Wild Animals
3. Environments and Ecosystems
4. Humans
5. Molecular Biology of Coronaviruses
Dimension Three
6. Gain-of Function Research, Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Bioethics
7. Conclusions and Policy Recommendations
Acknowledgments
Appendixes
Notes
References
Index

Author Bio
Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP
Featured Contributor

Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP

Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP, is a physician and educator. A cofounder of the One Health Initiative, she is the author of Who's in Charge? Leadership during Epidemics, Bioterror Attacks, and Other Public Health Crises and One Health and the Politics of Antimicrobial Resistance.