I'm Alan Alder, and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

I actually wrote an op-ed in November in the New York Times saying,

Wake Up World, do you realize what's coming down the pike?

Well, you know what?

I got it wrong in November.

I didn't get it nearly as bad as it actually is

right now. And I think that at this point, people have to come to reality that we are in a time

that is as dangerous from a public health standpoint as ever. We have a full-fledged, unprepared country. And all I can say

is the price will pay is not just in dollars and cents, but it'll be in human lives. And I don't

know how many human lives you have to chalk up here. You decide it's no longer worth it anymore.

That's Michael Osterholm, a leading authority on pandemics.

His new book, The Big One, takes lessons learned from the COVID pandemic

to look ahead at how we might better tackle the next inevitable global pandemic.

The book comes at a troubling time with science all but discarded from the leading government

agencies responsible

for public health.

This seems to be a serious moment in the history of the health of our country.

When the funding for MRNA vaccines got killed, I think that's when you said this

is the most dangerous public health decision

ever made by a government body. And then it got worse. As we record this only a couple of days ago,

the CEO of the CDC has been fired, and vaccinations for many children have been cut back.

Is it true that pharmacists have been writing you saying they're afraid that they might be

...