The Writer’s Center welcomes Dr. Laura H. Kahn to celebrate the release of her book, One Health and the Politics of COVID-19, published by Johns Hopkins University press. Dr. Kahn will be in conversation with investigative reporter Emily Kopp.

For almost 15 years, Laura Kahn, a physician, was a research scholar with the Program on Science and Global Security at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.  She is a co-founder of the One Health Initiative, a global movement that promotes the health of all species. She is the author of, Who’s in Charge? Leadership during epidemics, bioterror attacks, and other public health crises, originally published in 2009 by Praeger Security International. In 2020, a second edition was issued with a new preface discussing leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her second book, One Health and the Politics of Antimicrobial Resistance, was published in June 2016 by Johns Hopkins University Press. In 2014, the American Association of Public Health Physicians awarded her with a Presidential Award for Meritorious Service, and in 2016, the American Veterinary One Health Society awarded her with their highest honor, the K.F. Meyer-James H. Steele Gold Head Cane Award, for her work in One Health.

Emily Kopp, an investigative reporter, uses the Freedom of Information Act to uncover stories about one of the most consequential events of our lifetimes. She has written about issues affecting American health care for a decade and has published in news outlets around the world, including CQ Roll Call and Kaiser Health News.

About the Book

One Health and the Politics of COVID-19 unpacks the mysteries of COVID-19’s origins to impart important lessons for future outbreaks. The One Health concept recognizes the interconnected links among the health of humans, animals, plants, and the environment. By comparing the history, science, and clinical presentations of three different coronaviruses—SARS-CoV-1, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)—Kahn uncovers insights with important repercussions for how to prepare and avoid future pandemics. The One Health approach provides a useful framework for examining the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the origins of this zoonotic disease requires investigating the environmental and molecular biological factors that allowed the virus to spread to humans. The book explores the many ways in which the wild animal trade, wet markets, and the camel industry contributed to the spread of the earlier SARS-CoV-1 and MERS coronaviruses. For SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), Kahn examines the biosafety, biosecurity, and bioethics implications of gain-of-function research on pandemic potential pathogens. This book is a must read to understand the geopolitics of the COVID-19 pandemic.