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SELECTED BOOKS ON COVID-19 AND OTHER PANDEMICS
Pandemic: COVID-19 Shakes The World: As an unprecedented global pandemic sweeps the planet, who better than the supercharged Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Zizek to uncover its deeper meanings, marvel at its mind-boggling paradoxes, and speculate on the profundity of its consequences, all in a manner that will have you sweating profusely and gasping for breath? We live in a moment when the greatest act of love is to stay distant from the object of your affection. When governments renowned for ruthless cuts in public spending can suddenly conjure up trillions. When toilet paper becomes a commodity as precious as diamonds. And when, according to Zizek, a new form of communism may be the only way of averting a descent into global barbarism. Written with his customary brio and love of analogies in popular culture, Zizek provides a concise and provocative snapshot of the crisis as it widens, engulfing us all. (O/R Books)

Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs: A non-fiction book by epidemiologist Michael T Osterholm and writer Mark Olshaker, that explores public health emergencies including antimicrobial resistance, emerging infectious disease, and the threat of an influenza pandemic. It proposes a nine-point "battle plan for survival" for dealing with these threats, including solutions to antimicrobial drug resistance. The book also focuses on the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), toxic shock syndrome, Zika, Ebola, bioterrorism, influenza research, and the antivaccine movement. The book was first published in March 2017 by Little, Brown and Company. (Wikipedia)

How Contagion Works: Science, Awareness, and Community in Times of Global Crises: In this extraordinarily elegant work written from lockdown in Italy as the crisis deepened day to day, Paolo Giordano, the internationally bestselling writer of The Solitude of Prime Numbers with a PhD in physics, shows us what this outbreak really is about: human interconnectedness. Illuminating the big picture of how the disease spreads with great simplicity and mathematical insight and placing it in the context of other modern crises like climate change and xenophobia, Giordano reveals how battling the pandemic is ultimately about realizing how inextricably linked all our lives are and acting accordingly. Both timely and timeless, How Contagion Works is an accessible, deeply felt meditation on what it means to confront this pandemic both as individuals and as a community and empowers us not to show fear in the face of it. (Google Books)

How to Survive a Pandemic: A vital, timely text on the pathogens that cause pandemics and how to face them, by the New York Times bestselling author of "How Not To Die" — Dr Michael Greger. From tuberculosis and measles to AIDS and COVID-19, these infectious diseases share a common origin story: human interaction with animals. Otherwise known as zoonotic diseases for their passage from animals to humans, these infections — both pre-existing ones and those newly identified — have sparked some of the deadliest plagues in history. How did these diseases come about? And what — if anything — can we do to stop them and their fatal march into our communities, our homes, and our bodies? In "How to Survive a Pandemic: Overcoming COVID-19 and Preventing the Next Deadly Outbreak", Dr Michael Greger, physician and an internationally-recognised expert on public health issues, cuts through the prevailing noise and nonsense and reveals not only what we can do to protect ourselves and our loved ones during a pandemic, but also digs deeper into the roots of the problem and tackles the fundamental question: How can we stop the emergence of pandemic viruses in the first place? If there is one concept Dr Greger draws from his work on preventing and reversing chronic disease, it's that we must — whenever possible — treat the cause. (NutritionFacts.org)

UNDERSTANDING PANDEMICS: A BRIEF HISTORY

Before any discussion on COVID-19, it is important for us to understand the history of epidemics. Dr Michael Greger, an internationally-recognised expert on public health issues look at some of the worst pandemics in our history, and how to treat the cause by preventing the emergence of pandemic viruses in the first place. This presentation by Dr Greger was recorded in the year 2008 when he was the Public Health Director at The Humane Society, Washington DC, USA. The speech is so prophetic that, more than a decade ago, he almost predicted all health threats the humanity is going to face — from Climate Change to emerging pandemic influenza without having to mention the term — COVID-19, a clinical name developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) only in 2020. Michael Greger's latest book "How to Survive a Pandemic: A Vital, Timely Text on the Pathogens that Cause Pandemics and How to Face Them" is an eye-opener and an excellent guide to future pandemics that are in the waiting.

To know more about Dr Greger and his work, visit: www.nutritionfacts.org

SELECTED PODCASTS ON THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK

SELECTED NEWS REPORTS & RESEARCH PAPERS

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PANDEMICS
"Significant Events in the History of Virology: 1796-2019" (Bio-Techne) | "In the 1918 Flu Pandemic, Not Wearing a Mask was Illegal in Some Parts of America. What Changed?" (CNN) | "The Woman Who Discovered the First CoronaVirus" (BBC News) | "Lessons from the Bombay Plague" (By Sifra Lentin | Gateway House) | "The American History of Compulsory Vaccination and Its Ties to Eugenics" (Vaccine Impact)

THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW EPIDEMIC
"CoronaVirus Has a Name: The Deadly Disease Is COVID-19" (Science) | "Israeli Professor Shows Virus Followed Fixed Pattern" (By Marina Medvin | TownHall) | "CoronaVirus Came from Bats, Can Infect Cats, Ferrets, WHO Says" (By Janice Kew & John Lauerman | Bloomberg) | "CoronaVirus Mutations: Scientists Puzzle Over Impact" (By Rachel Schraer | BBC News) | "CoronaVirus Hype Biggest Political Hoax in History" (By Cheryl K Chumley | Washington Times) | "The CoronaVirus in America: The Year Ahead" (By Donald G McNeil Jr | The New York Times) | "Why Children Are Not Immune to COVID-19" (By Michelle Fernandes | BBC Future) | "Why Has the CoronaVirus Hit African Americans So Hard" (By Aleem Maqbool | BBC) | "Aggressive Testing, Contact Tracing, Cooked Meals: How the Indian State of Kerala Flattened its CoronaVirus Curve" (By Niha Masih | The Washington Post) | "Beijing Tightens Grip Over Coronavirus Research" (By Netcar Gan | CNN) | "Merchants of Death: Multibillion-Dollar Bailout for Arms Industry Amid Rising COVID-19 Toll" (World Socialist Web) | "COVID-19 Vaccine Frontrunner" (By Jef Akst | The Scientist)

AN EPIDEMIC TURNS PANDEMIC
"Clinical Features of Patients Infected with 2019 Novel CoronaVirus in Wuhan, China" (January 24, 2020 | Lancet) | "A New Coronavirus Associated with Human Respiratory Disease in China" (February 03, 2020 | Nature) | "The Effect of Travel Restrictions on the Spread of the 2019 Novel CoronaVirus Outbreak" (Science) | "More Contagious Form of the CoronaVirus Rapidly Emerging As Dominant Strain: Study" (By Adam K Raymond | The Strategist) | "A Pneumonia Outbreak Associated With a New CoronaVirus of Probable Bat Origin" (February 03, 2020 | Nature) | "COVID-19: Strategy Update" (April 13, 2020 | World Health Organisation)

THE PANDEMIC POLITICS
"China's Influence Over the United Nations" (By Neelam Deo | Gateway House) | "Why the WHO Treats Bill Gates Like A President" (By Johan van Dongen | Modern Ghana) | "The United Nations Goes Missing" (By Nahal Toosi & Ryan Heath | Politico) | "Can WHO Meet the CoronaVirus Challenge?" (By Georg Fahrion, Dietmar Pieper, Raniah Salloum & Fritz Schaap) | "China's Deadly Legacy Exposed: CoronaVirus Conspiracy Theories From Facts" (By Richard Pendlebury & John Naish | The Daily Mail) | "The World Faces A Moment of Truth on China" (By Brahma Chellaney | The Japan Times) | "Global Backlash Builds Against China Over CoronaVirus" (By Steven Erlanger | The New York Times) | "Is China Preparing for War?" (By Maajid Nawaz | UnHerd) | "China's Biological Warfare Programme: An Integrative Study with Special Reference to Biological Weapons Capabilities" (By Dany Shoham | IDSA) | "How to Make China Pay" (By John Yoo & Ivana Strandner | National Review) | "No Scientific Evidence the CoronaVirus Was Made in a Chinese Lab: Fauci" (By Nsikan Akpan & Victoria Jaggard | National Geographic) | "CoronaVirus NSW: Dossier Lays Out Case Against China Bat Virus Program" (By Sharri Markson | The Daily Telegraph) | "China Spins Tale That the US Army Started the CoronaVirus Epidemic" (By Steven Lee Myres | The New York Times) | "A Setback to the China Dream" (By Srikanth Kondapalli | Deccan Herald) | "Why We Need World Health Organisation, Despite Its Flaws" (By Ian Bremmer | TIME) | "Trump Is Not Wrong About Investigating WHO" (By Robert Wright | WIRED) | "If There Was No Coverup, Why China Opposing An Inquiry" (By Brahma Chellaney | The Hill) | "For China, Censorship Is More Important Than Human Life" (By Bai Lin | Bitter Winter) | "China Declares Victory Over Both the Coronavirus and Critics of the Communist Party at the Biggest Political Event of the Year" (By Barbara Demick | The New Yorker)

AFTER THE PANDEMIC
"The Pandemic Will Accelerate History Rather Than Reshape It" (By Richard Haass | Foreign Affairs) | "NASA Probes Environment, COVID-19 Impacts, Possible Links" (By Elizabeth Goldbaum | NASA) | "Will CoronaVirus Change How We Define Heroes?" (By Josh Sims | BBC Worklife) | "Future of Our Global Economy: The Beginning of De-Globalisation" (By Alexander Jung | Der Spiegel) | "My Hero Is You: How Kids Can Fight COVID-19" (UNICEF 2020) | "CoronaVirus Won't Kill Globalisation. But It Will Look Different After the Pandemic" (By Arjun Appadurai | TIME) | "Camus and the Political Tests of a Pandemic" (By Steve Coll | The New Yorker) | "COVID-19: Climate Lessons" (Breakthrough: National Centre for Climate Restoration) | "On the Economics of Not Dying" (By Paul Krugman | The New York Times) | "Coronavirus: This Is Not The Last Pandemic" (By Victoria Gill | BBC) "After COVID-19, Will Nature Take Over?" (By Raffi Khatchadourian | The New Yorker)

"ONE LIE, ONE WEAPON" — AN INTRODUCTION TO "COVID-19: WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?"

We are happy to share with you "One Lie, One Weapon", a 2-minute introductory video announcing the launch of "COVID-19: Who Is Responsible?" — a web-based information portal developed by Friends of Tibet [Research] Team in association with Design & People. This initiative aims to bring information, findings and opinion from diverse sources to one platform in order to initiate a dialogue and to form a collective opinion on the outbreak. We would like to know what you think of the situation, issues you'd like to discuss and understand better so that collectively we improve the 'Who Is Responsible?' coverage. Write to us at: research@friendsoftibet.org. Thank you!

Stay Home. Stay Aware!
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