Covid-19 - The Pandemic That Never Should Have Happened, and How to Stop the Next One, by Debora MacKenzie, The Bridget Street Press, 305pp

There is a remarkable contrast between the fifty years up to 1970, there had been no unexpected emergence of a new and dangerous infectious disease, and the fifty years since.  Debora MacKenzie lists 20 in all, ending with Covid-19.  She provides a masterful brief summary of the course of such events, over a time when investment in public health decreased in many countries.

Modern living and population pressures have increased the pressure on natural systems, increasing the risk from pathogens.  "Yet we have neglected to invest in the things that discourage infectious disease: public health, decent jobs and housing, education, sanitation.

"But what is especially sad for a science journalist like me who writes about disease for a living is that this has not exactly been a surprise.  Scientists have been warning for decades, with mounting urgency, that this was going to happen.  And journalists like me have been relaying their warnings . . ."

There is a review in "The Scotsman":  https://bit.ly/3n8LMg3