Mike Osterholm

Thank you very much, Eric.

It's a real honor to be with you.

Well, if I can add one addendum to this, okay, because it's in the book, so I surely don't want to disguise it.

But what the audience may not realize is that you, along with several other colleagues and I, got together every Friday throughout the pandemic, what we call the party planning group to cover in our

our calendars.

And what I learned from you during the pandemic, I felt like I could almost have gotten another PhD or, you know, at least another master's.

And I just want to personally thank you.

Your clarity of voice, your brilliant, brilliant assessment of what, you know, the various clinical and epidemiologic issues mean.

has been just a gift.

And so when you started this Substack, obviously, as you know, I couldn't wait to subscribe.

And I hope everyone who's listening today realizes just what a valuable tool you are to those of us.

So it's an honor, a real honor for me to be here with you.

Well, first of all, what we attempted to do with this book is provide basically a fictional outbreak that begins in the first chapter with the very first transmission in Somalia.

And it points out just how quickly this virus would spread.

And it's very realistic.

I mean, we...

Checked every figure with everyone in Somalia, Kenya, airports.

And what we try to do then is based on that, each chapter begins with that fictional scenario.

And then we go into the nonfiction actual assessment of what should we or could we have learned.

And as you know, we've learned a heck of a lot during this pandemic.