Michael THE BLIND SIDE/THE BIG SHORT/MONEYBALL Lewis’s latest book daringly captures what went wrong from the U.S. perspective with the COVID-19 pandemic. And just like his previous work, it’s told from a singular perspective.
The heroine in THE PREMONITION is the inspirational post-it note user, Charity Dean. It wisely follows her discoveries as a lowly paid assistant director of California’s Department of Public Health to become the hidden figure that helped Governor Newsom once disaster hit. Not only do we follow Charity through the deadliest pandemic of our lifetime, but we also see her humble upbringing. From her internal medicine residency in Santa Barbara to her involvement in determining the germ risk after the horrific Montecito mudslides.
After Lewis makes a sweeping case for why the CDC is not-so-good, he outlines the perfect storm of inaction from our leaders. From Obama, Bush, the CDC itself, and of course, the former President Trump. This combo leads to the sh*tstorm (technical term) America faced in 2020. What shocked me most about the government is its inability to develop a plan of action. Each step of the way, they were blocked by the CDC or White House. The CDC prefers to study what was happening before making national changes. The local governments were promised medical supplies from the White House that never came. And if those local governments said anything, the White House bullied them. It was a never-ending cycle that didn’t have to cost Americans lives, but it did.
When the U.S. made it out of the Swine Flu, former President Obama said, “We dodged a bullet.” Charity Dean begs to differ. It’s not that we dodged a bullet, “it’s that nature shot us with a B.B. gun.” THE PREMONITION goes deep into what happens when nature’s bullet hits us, and the story is a riveting page-turner.
As I write this review, I can’t help but think of the quote from the recent kid’s show, THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY. “Proof is useless unless it’s proof of something people already want to believe in.” The people that should read this book or listen to my review won’t. Yet, if you take out the politicized virus and your love or hate for Trump, you are left with the classic story of an unassuming hero that ascends to greatness. For those that won’t read it now, it’s okay. Within five years, this book will be a movie starring a Margot Robbie-like actress playing Charity Dean. Until then, 🤞 we don’t have another pandemic in our lifetime. Because if history taught us anything, the results would once again be far from perfect.
THE PREMONITION is available on Audible and in paperback.
