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The Premonition

A Pandemic Story

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The Premonition

By: Michael Lewis
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'It's a foreboding,' she said. 'A knowing that something is looming around the corner. Like how when the seasons change you can smell fall in the air right before the leaves change and the wind turns cold.'

In January 2020, as people started dying from a new virus in Wuhan, China, few really understood the magnitude of what was happening. Except, that is, a small group of scientific misfits who in their different ways had been obsessed all their lives with how viruses spread and replicated - and with why the governments and the institutions that were supposed to look after us, kept making the same mistakes time and again.

This group saw what nobody else did. A pandemic was coming. We weren't prepared.

The Premonition is the extraordinary story of a group who anticipated, traced and hunted the coronavirus; who understood the need to think differently, to learn from history, to question everything; and to do all of this fast, in order to act, to save lives, communities, society itself. It's a story about the workings of the human mind; about the failures and triumphs of human judgment and imagination. It's the story of how we got to now.

©2021 Michael Lewis (P)2021 Penguin Audio Biological Sciences Contagious Diseases Physical Illness & Disease Physics Science Social Sciences Sociology China
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Good story, pity about the narration, Worst narrated book I have heard. Won't be buying anymore she narrates

Narration was boring

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I appreciated the story but was disappointed by the protagonist’s lack of any broad based population strategy outside of vaccines (Nb the cv jabs are not vaccines), lock-downs, social distancing & masks which have all proven to be useless and damaging. Where was the consideration of the population level use of safe and effective medical therapies such as hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, vitamin C & D, zinc and anti-oxidant support for the immune system? What happened to natural immunity and it’s role in herd immunity? Where was the discussion about the unsuitability of the PCR test in the clinical setting? The protagonists vision of complete centralised control is quite terrifying. A medical tyrannical state. We must remember that the overall survival rate from cv in the general population is 99.7% (with higher mortality rates in high risk groups such as the elderly and younger people with co-morbidities) - so what is the need to test asymptomatic people and enforce strategies which has ruined the lives of children and working age people who are at low risk of hospitalisation and death? Scary people, we must be in guard against them in the next round.

NA

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It was too paused and read like a children’s book. I liked the story, found it interesting but I also felt it jumped a lot without notice.

Didnt love the narration

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After listening to the first chapter of this book on Michael’s podcast I set out to download it straight away. I started listening and had to double check that I had downloaded the correct title. The narration of this book was very disappointing, particularly after hearing Michael Lewis read the first chapter.

The story itself is very well written and keeps you listening for what is happening next. It still a very worthy listen/ read. After a while you become used to the drone of the voice and just accept it.

Great story, Poor narration

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Not Lewis, sure, but still listenable.
The pandemic modelling on U.S.A. school density and transportation makes far more sense on why schools were closed on the assumption that children would be better vectors of disease than adults as is often the case with colds and influenza. Australian schools are not quite the same, but also, while SARS-CoV-2 isn't spread like influenza, it makes far more sense why schools were closed. It also explains why they will be closed next influenza pandemic.

At 1.5 speed, the narration is lovely.

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Shame because the book and story is excellent. Very timely but the audio really takes away from the experience

Good book, terrible automated reading

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What makes it even worse is that I can picture Lewis reading the book himself, the writing screams to be read in the authors own voice.

Ruined by a bad narrator

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Great book and shows how it is necessary for leaders to get out of the way and let the teams do their work. If the main people had the right leaders the out come would have been different.

The right leaders are required

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loved this book ,it could have been such a dry subject but it raced along like the best detective fiction.Some truly remarkable personal stories and a damning indictment of the USA pandemic response .
The narrators rhythm was a bit off putting but not enough to spoil this great listen

Riveting and scary story

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an explanation about how it all went wrong in America's response to the Covid pandemic.

interesting, very detailed

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