Summary

The Introduction introduces public health epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, but not his co-author, Mark Olshaker, to the reader. The Introduction makes a case for Olshaker’s expertise, briefly detailing his long career in public health. The Introduction is also where the authors make the case that this book and its contents are important, discussing the global impact infectious disease has on humanity. It sets the tone for the whole book in the first sentence, in which Osterholm talks about all the important people he has worked with, and how many of them refer to him as “Bad News Mike,” (1). This is also where Osterholm introduces the running them of “threat matrices,” and tells the reader that he believes science and policy must be intertwined in order to proactively combat disease.

Osterholm defines infectious disease, a very broad category of illnesses that spread from...