Book Log 2023 #17: The Premonition by Michael Lewis

Continuing the series of books about how things went wrong (The Big Short and to some extent The Fifth Risk), Lewis turns his eyes towards the Covid-19 pandemic. In this case, he profiles a group of US public health officials who could see what was coming and tried to get the word out, but was stymied by political forces in Washington. Not surprisingly the CDC comes in for a lot of criticism, which is wholly justified. 

The book doesn't really get into the ways the White House monkeyed with things, which kind of makes sense given the thesis of the book. Rather than be the umpteenth work to lament suggestions to drink bleach, the idea at play here is that the growing politicization of previously non-partisan agencies is a problem, and will create greater problems if it continues. The US government response to the pandemic certainly argues in favor of that idea.

The book is as readable as anything Lewis has written, and his focus on a few key players helps to keep the narrative manageable.