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Microbe: Are We Ready For The Next Plague?

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Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague?
By: Alan P. Zelicoff and Michael Bellomo

Microbe, by Alan P. Zelicoff and Michael Bellomo, describes the way our public health systems react to outbreaks of disease. It shows many different real life situations, including the 2003 SARS outbreak in China, and describes the way that national health organizations responded to the threats. Using the situations that occurred in the past, Microbe presents two different hypothetical outbreaks - a natural outbreak of bird flu in California, and a bioterrorism attack in Denver. The first situation shows what could happen if we don’t react quick enough, causing many unnecessary deaths, and the second shows what would happen when we act fast enough to …show more content…

Zelicoff, is a licensed physician who, at the time of Microbe’s publication, worked at the ARES Corporation, which is a risk management firm. He was personally involved in many of the stories throughout the book, including the SARS outbreak in China and the Smallpox outbreak of 1971. He is also credited with inventing the Rapid Syndrome Validation Program (RSVP). He has also written another book, More Harm Than Good: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Common Treatments and Procedures. The second author, Michael Bellomo, holds an MBA and a Juris Doctor in Law. He worked with Zelicoff on More Harm Than Good, and wrote The Stem Cell Divide: The Facts, the Fiction, and the Fear Driving the Greatest Scientific, Political, and Religious Debate of Our Time. All in all, I enjoyed Microbe, and I would recommend it to any of my friends that are interested in science. I learned about the faults in our public healthcare systems. I also learned about Anthrax and the Sin Nombre Hantavirus, which I had before only heard in passing. I realized how easily certain viruses could spread, and how they can be used in bioterrorist attacks. My favorite part about this book was how it made me seriously consider the ways in which veterinarians can help not only animals, but also humans. It has made me more curious about veterinary sciences, and science in

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