Scientists have warned for decades that the next big pandemic would be caused by a changeable new virus-- very possibly a coronavirus-- but such warnings were ignored for political or economic reasons. Quammen takes readers inside the frantic international effort to understand and control SARS-CoV-2 (aka COVID-19), peering over the shoulders of the scientists who led the chase and found the way to fight the virus. He shows how new viruses emerge from animals into humans as we disrupt wild ecosystems, and how these viruses adapt to the human host -- sometimes causing global catastrophe. -- adapted from jacket Provided by publisher.

Citizens need not panic -- The warnings -- Message in a bottle -- Market dynamics -- Variables and constants -- Four kinds of magic -- The leopards of Mumbai -- Nobody knows everything.