The Contagion Next Time

In a few short months, COVID-19 devastated the world and, in particular, the United States. Yet America was already in poor health before COVID-19 appeared. Racism, marginalization, socioeconomic inequality—the failure to address these forces left America vulnerable to COVID-19 and the ensuing global health crisis it became. This book articulates the foundational forces shaping health in American society and how they can be strengthened to prevent the next outbreak from becoming a pandemic. Because while no one could have predicted that a pandemic would strike when it did, we did know that a pandemic would strike, sooner or later. The book challenges Americans to tackle the deep-rooted obstacles preventing them from becoming a truly vibrant and equitable nation, reminding them of what they seemed to have forgotten: that health is a public good worth protecting.