World War C

by Sanjay Gupta

  8 See Dean T. Jamison et al., Disease Control Priorities, 3rd ed., vol. 9, Improving Health and Reducing Poverty (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017), https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/28877.

  9 See Jin Pan et al., “Inward and Outward Effectiveness of Cloth Masks, a Surgical Mask, and a Face Shield,” Aerosol Science and Technology 55, no. 6 (2021): 718–733, doi: 10.1080/02786826.2021.1890687.

  10 See Jennifer Prah Ruger, “The CDC Is a National Treasure. Why Is It Being Sidelined?” CNN, “Opinion,” May 15, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/14/opinions/pandemic-amnesia-threatens-our-health-cdc-prah-ruger/index.html.

  11 See the report “A Funding Crisis for Public Health and Safety,” by Trust for America’s Health at https://www.tfah.org/report-details/a-funding-crisis-for-public-health-and-safety-state-by-state-and-federal-public-health-funding-facts-and-recommendations/.

  12 See Jason Kottke, “The Paradox of Preparation,” kottke.org (blog), March 16, 2020, https://kottke.org/20/03/the-paradox-of-preparation.

  Chapter 6: R: Rethink and Rewire Risk in Your Brain

  1 This quote is attributed to James D. Watson and is written in the foreword to Sandra Ackerman’s Discovering the Brain (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1992).

  2 E. Awad et al., “The Moral Machine Experiment,” Nature 563 (2018): 59–64, doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0637-6. Also see https://www.moralmachine.net/.

  3 To access all of Shohamy’s work and studies, go to https://shohamylab.zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/research-projects. Also see https://zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/daphna-shohamy-phd.

  4 See https://www.idsociety.org/.

  5 See Martin Z. Bazant and John W. M. Bush, “A Guideline to Limit Indoor Airborne Transmission of COVID-19,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 118, no. 17 (April 2021): e2018995118, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2018995118.

  6 See Kathy Katella, “The Johnson & Johnson Vaccine and Blood Clots: What You Need to Know,” Yale Medicine, April 23, 2021, https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/coronavirus-vaccine-blood-clots.

  7 See cdc.gov.

  8 See Maggie Fox, “These Blood Clot Experts Want You to Get a Covid-19 Vaccine. Here’s Why,” CNN, April 21, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/20/health/blood-clots-experts-covid-vaccine/index.html.

  9 For a basic lesson on risk, with examples, see “Understanding Risk,” BMJ Best Practice site at https://stg-bestpractice.bmj.com/info/toolkit/practise-ebm/understanding-risk/.

  10 See Andrea Kane, “These Twins Were Like Two Peas in a Pod—Except When Covid-19 Struck,” CNN, May 8, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/08/health/identical-twins-covid-19-severe-illness/index.html.

  11 See “The Disinformation Dozen” by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, March 24, 2021, https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_b7cedc0553604720b7137f8663366ee5.pdf. Also see Shannon Bond, “Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes on Social Media, Research Shows,” NPR, May 14, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996570855/disinformation-dozen-test-facebooks-twitters-ability-to-curb-vaccine-hoaxes.

  12 Michael Eisenstein, “What’s Your Risk of Catching COVID? These Tools Help You to Find Out,” Nature 589 (December 2021): 158–159.

  13 See David Leonhardt, “What Do You Do When the Kids Are Still Unvaccinated?” New York Times, April 22, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/opinion/covid-vaccine-kids.html.

  Chapter 7: O: Optimize Health

  1 See Alaa Elassar, “He Was an Athlete in the Best Shape of His Life. Then Covid-19 Nearly Killed Him,” CNN, June 30, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/30/health/coronavirus-athlete-covid-19-ahmad-ayyad-john-hopkins-trnd/index.html.

  2 See Elian Peltier and Vanessa Friedman, “Alber Elbaz, Beloved Fashion Designer, Is Dead at 59,” Obituaries, New York Times, April 25, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/obituaries/alber-elbaz-dead.html.

  3 See the International Food Information Council’s 2020 Food and Health Survey at https://foodinsight.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/IFIC-Food-and-Health-Survey-2020.pdf.

  4 See “Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Study Finds Millennials Are Less Healthy than Generation X Were at the Same Age,” Blue Cross Blue Shield, April 24, 2019, https://www.bcbs.com/press-releases/blue-cross-blue-shield-association-study-finds-millennials-are-less-healthy. Also see Megan Leonhardt, “44% of Older Millennials Already Have a Chronic Health Condition. Here’s What that Means for Their Futures,” CNBC, May 4, 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/04/older-millennials-chronic-health-conditions.html.

  5 See cdc.gov.

  6 See Meredith Wadman, “Why COVID-19 Is More Deadly in People with Obesity—Even If They’re Young,” Science, September 8, 2020, https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/why-covid-19-more-deadly-people-obesity-even-if-theyre-young.

  7 See Manfred J Müller, Anja Bosy-Westphal, and Steven B. Heymsfield, “Is There Evidence for a Set Point that Regulates Human Body Weight?” Faculty of 1000 Medicine Reports 2 (August 2010): 59, doi: 10.3410/M2-59.

  8 See cdc.gov.

  9 See “Dietary Supplements in the Time of COVID-19” at NIH.gov, https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/COVID19-HealthProfessional/, and “FDA and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Sent 106 Joint Warning Letters to Supplement Producers for Selling Products” at ftc.gov, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/05/federal-trade-commission-fda-warn-five-companies-may-be-illegally.

  10 For everything you want to know about the microbiome, I recommend: Liam Drew, “Highlights from Studies on the Gut Microbiome,” Nature 577 (2020): S24–25, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00203-4. Also see Emeran Mayer, The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health (New York: Harper Wave, 2016).

  11 See H. F. Helander and L. Fändriks, “Surface Area of the Digestive Tract—Revisited,” Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology 49, no. 6 (June 2014): 681–89, doi: 10.3109/00365521.2014.898326.

  12 See Y. K. Yeoh et al., “Gut Microbiota Composition Reflects Disease Severity and Dysfunctional Immune Responses in Patients with COVID-19,” Gut 70 (2021): 698–706, doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2020-323020.

  13 See cdc.gov.

  14 See L. Laranjo et al., “Do Smartphone Applications and Activity Trackers Increase Physical Activity in Adults? Systematic Review, Meta-analysis and Metaregression,” British Journal of Sports Medicine 55 (2021): 422–432, doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-102892.

  15 For everything you want to know about sleep, see: Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (New York: Scribner, 2017).

  16 For a general overview, see Suzanne C. Segerstrom and Gregory E. Miller, “Psychological Stress and the Human Immune System: A Meta-analytic Study of 30 Years of Inquiry,” Psychological Bulletin Journal 130, no. 4 (July 2004): 601–630, doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.130.4.601.

  17 See Richard A. Friedman, “You Might Be Depressed Now, but Don’t Underestimate Your Resilience,” New York Times, May 4, 2021.

  18 See Chris Melore, “Lonely Nation: 2 in 3 Americans Feel More Alone than Ever Before, Many Admit to Crying for First Time in Years,” Study Finds, April 29, 2021, https://www.studyfinds.org/lonely-nation-two-thirds-feel-more-alone-than-ever-many-cry-first-time/.

  19 See Roger A. H. Adan et al., “Nutritional Psychiatry: Towards Improving Mental Health by What You Eat,” European Neuropsychopharmacology 29, no. 12 (December 2019): 1321–1332, doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.10.011.

  20 See Felice N. Jacka, “Nutritional Psychiatry: Where to Next?” EBioMedicine 17 (March 2017): 24–29, doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2017.02.020.

  Chapter 8: O: Organize Family

  1 See Sanjay Gupta, Childhood, Interrupted: Raising Kids During a Pandemic, Audible Originals (2020).

  2 See “What Have Scientists Learned about Kids’ Well-being from Pandemic?” Full Circle, CNN, April 1, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2021/04/01/angela-duckworth-grit-help-kids-thrive-pandemic-full-episode-acfc-vpx.cnn.
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  3 See Phil McCausland, “Medical Debt Is Engulfing More People as Pandemic Takes Its Toll,” NBC News, April 23, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/medical-debt-engulfing-more-people-pandemic-takes-its-toll-n1265002.

  4 See “About 8% of People Who Live in US Long-term-care Facilities Have Died of COVID-19—Nearly 1 in 12. For Nursing Homes Alone, the Figure Is Nearly 1 in 10,” The Covid Tracking Project, https://covidtracking.com/nursing-homes-long-term-care-facilities.

  5 See “Infection Control Deficiencies Were Widespread and Persistent in Nursing Homes Prior to COVID-19 Pandemic,” Report by the US Government Accountability Office, May 20, 2020, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-20-576r.

  6 See Kim Schive, “Public Toilets and ‘Toilet Plumes’, ” MIT Medical, June 15, 2020, https://medical.mit.edu/covid-19-updates/2020/06/public-toilets-and-toilet-plumes.

  7 See D. P. Strachan, “Hay Fever, Hygiene, and Household Size,” British Medical Journal 299, no. 6710 (November 1989): 1259–1260, doi: 10.1136/bmj.299.6710.1259.

  8 See Linda Brookes and Laurence E. Cheng, “The Hygiene Hypothesis—Redefine, Rename, or Just Clean It Up?” Medscape, April 6, 2015, https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/842500.

  9 B. Brett Finlay et al., “The Hygiene Hypothesis, the COVID Pandemic, and Consequences for the Human Microbiome,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 6 (February 2021): e2010217118, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2010217118.

  10 See S. Lopez-Leon et al., “More than 50 Long-term Effects of COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” preprint, medRxiv, posted January 30, 2021, doi: 10.1101/2021.01.27.21250617. Also see Judy George, “80% of COVID-19 Patients May Have Lingering Symptoms, Signs—More than 50 Effects Persisted After Acute Infection, Meta-analysis Shows,” MedPage Today, January 30, 2021, https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/90966.

  11 See “Gene Expression Changes Could Be Behind Long-Haul COVID-19 Symptoms,” Clinical Omics, April 27, 2021, https://www.clinicalomics.com/topics/patient-care/coronavirus/gene-expression-changes-could-be-behind-long-haul-covid-19-symptoms/.

  12 See cdc.gov.

  13 See https://www.survivorcorps.com/.

  Chapter 9: F: Fight for the Future of Us

  1 See Dr. Sanjay Gupta, “I Went to Afghanistan and All I Got Was H1N1,” CNN, September 23, 2009.

  2 See cdc.gov.

  3 See Josh Holder, “Tracking Coronavirus Vaccinations Around the World,” New York Times, June 4, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html.

  4 See E. Dong, H. Du, and L. Gardner, “An Interactive Web-based Dashboard to Track COVID-19 in Real Time,” Lancet Infectious Diseases 20 no. 5 (2020): 533–534, doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30120-1. Also see https://www.github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19.

  5 Ibid.

  6 See Jeffrey Gettleman, Shalini Venugopal, and Apoorva Mandavilli, “India Blames a Virus Variant as Its Covid-19 Crisis Deepens,” New York Times, April 28, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/world/asia/india-covid19-variant.html.

  7 See Christopher Klein, “Why October 1918 Was America’s Deadliest Month Ever,” History, October 5, 2018, https://www.history.com/news/spanish-flu-deaths-october-1918.

  8 See Grace Hauck, “We’re Celebrating Thanksgiving Amid a Pandemic. Here’s How We Did It in 1918—and What Happened Next,” USA Today, November 21, 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2020/11/21/covid-and-thanksgiving-how-we-celebrated-during-1918-flu-pandemic/6264231002/.

  Index

  A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

  absolute risk, 173, 174, 175, 188

  ACE 2 receptors (angiotensin converting enzyme 2), 86, 88–89, 90, 91, 195

  acoustic startle reflex, 138

  Adalja, Amesh, 188

  adaptive immune system, 112, 113

  adenoviruses, 106, 113–14, 118

  advance health directives, 224–26

  Affordable Care Act (ACA), 222–23

  AIDS epidemic, 54 See also HIV

  air travel restrictions, 8

  American Heart Association, 174

  amino acids, 97

  Angelou, Maya, 10

  angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE 2 receptors), 86, 88–89, 90, 91, 195

  anthrax attacks, 15, 30

  anti-Asian racism, 134

  antimicrobial efforts, 233–34

  antiscience movement, 148, 149

  anti-vaccination movement, 94, 97, 102–5, 104, 147–48, 149, 185

  Apocalypse Now, 3

  Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live (Christakis), 143

  Armstrong, Neil, 116

  Asimov’s law, 165

  Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), 29, 32

  assisted-living facilities, 228, 229

  asymptomatic infection, 7, 24, 34, 42, 54–55, 59, 82, 145

  Atlas, Scott, 60, 63

  avian flu (H5N1), 10, 26, 77, 242

  avian viruses, 78

  Ayyad, Ahmad, 191–92

  Azar, Alex, 61

  bacteriophages, 70

  Bannister, Roger, 116–17

  Banu, Rahima, 100

  Barry, John M., 29

  bat coronaviruses, 82, 84, 85

  bats, 78–79

  B cells, 112, 114, 204

  behavior modification, 41, 46

  Beijerinck, Martinus, 72

  Berra, Yogi, 13

  Berrent, Diana, 239

  Biden, Joe, 14, 28

  Biden administration COVID response, 32, 141

  Biggest Bluff, The (Konnikova), 181

  Bills of Mortality, 36

  biological dark matter, 71

  Birx, Deborah on community, 141

  as coronavirus response coordinator, 45

  COVID asymptomatic spread and, 54

  on cruise ship COVID spread, 55

  on federal messaging, 63–64

  on flu diagnosis, 57, 138

  as global AIDS coordinator, 53

  on messaging, 139, 140

  persuasion campaigns, 62–63

  on proactive testing, 58, 59

  as prominent pandemic responder, 135

  state travel by, 33–34

  tribal nations work of, 140–41

  on unnecessary COVID deaths, 43

  on viruses, 87–88

  as White House coronavirus task force coordinator, 14–15

  Black Death, 35, 36, 98, 148

  blood clots, 173–74

  border restrictions, 157

  Bourla, Albert, 96

  brain fog, 142

  brain plasticity, 169

  brain risk calculating, 176–78

  Brillat-Savarin, Anthelme, 204

  Brilliant, Larry, 100, 101, 102

  British Columbia response protocols, 133–37

  British Journal of Sports Medicine, 211

  British response protocols, 37–38

  Brownstein, John, 55–56

  Bryant, Kobe, 7–8

  BSL-4 lab, 82

  bubonic plague, 35, 36, 98, 148

  Burdick, Alan, 86

  Burns, Scott Z., 4

  Bush, George W., 14, 29, 30, 31–32, 50

  Camus, Albert, 148

  Cancel for Any Reason travel insurance, 226

  cancer research, 109, 110–11

  Caneva, Duane, 49

  capsid-encoding organisms (CEO), 74–75

  CDC. See U.S. CDC

  CDC-issued vaccination cards, 227

  Center(s) for Disease Control and Prevention (China), 1, 2, 51, 53

  Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), 228

  Central Epidemic Command Center, 157

 
Chagas, 147

  chain of transmission, 86, 100–101, 112

  Chasing Life, 219

  Chicago Hope, 137

  chickenpox vaccine, 105

  Childhood, Interrupted (Gupta), 221

  China Center(s) for Disease Control and Prevention, 1, 2, 51, 53

  COVID deception by, 51–53

  disinformation by, 55

  initial mortality rates in, 52

  lab leak theory, 81–86

  National Health Commission, 13

  Christakis, Nicholas, 143–46

  chronic underlying medical conditions, 193–94

  climate change, 77, 130, 146

  Clinton, Bill, 14

  Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), 122

  cochranelibrary.com, 152

  Collins, Francis, 236

  colloidal silver, 200

  commercial sector, 153–55

  community monitoring, 38

  compassion fade, 21–22

  contact tracing, 37–38, 157, 184

  Contagion (Cook), 27

  Contagion (film), 3, 5

  contagium vivum fluidum, 72

  Cook, Robin, 27

  Coppola, Francis Ford, 1

  Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction, 219

  coronaviruses, 5, 34, 66, 75, 80, 107

  COVID daily risk spectrum, 171–72

  death risks of, 26

  deaths by, 23, 47, 63, 67–68

  economic disparities and, 11, 28–29, 36, 38–39, 122, 194, 220

  as endemic disease, 137–38

  evolutionary origins of, 75–81

  high-tech surveillance of, 139

  vs. HIV, 88

  human inflammatory response to, 80

  as inflammatory vascular disease, 237

  lab leak theory, 81–86

  living in the time of, 124, 193

  lockdown, 44, 184

  long-haul, 9, 24, 80, 196, 207, 235–40