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Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response Hardcover – June 15, 2021

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 473 ratings

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* NATIONAL BESTSELLER *

“Painfully good. The book could have been called, ‘Outrageous.’ The story Andy Slavitt tells is not just about Trump’s monumental failures but also about the deeper ones that started long before, with our health system, our politics, and more.” --Atul Gawande, author of
Being Mortal

The definitive, behind-the-scenes look at the U.S. Coronavirus crisis from one of the
most recognizable and influential voices in healthcare

From former Biden Senior Advisor Andy Slavitt, Preventable is the definitive inside account of the United States' failed response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Slavitt chronicles what he saw and how much could have been prevented -- an unflinching investigation of the cultural, political, and economic drivers that led to unnecessary loss of life.

With unparalleled access to the key players throughout the government on both sides of the aisle, the principal public figures, as well as the people working on the frontline involved in fighting the virus, Slavitt brings you into the room as fateful decisions are made and focuses on the people at the center of the political system, health care system, patients, and caregivers. The story that emerges is one of a country in which -- despite the heroics of many -- bad leadership, political and cultural fractures, and an unwillingness to sustain sacrifice light a fuse that is difficult to extinguish.

Written in the tradition of
The Big Short, Preventable continues Andy Slavitt’s important work of addressing the uncomfortable realities that brought America to this place. And, he puts forth the solutions that will prevent us from being here again, ensuring a better, stronger country for everyone.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Slavitt draws upon his own insider access in Preventable … It's a unique status that gave him direct access to decision-makers, who appeared to confide in him.” ―The Washington Post

“[
Preventable] is an informative examination of what went so horribly wrong in the federal government’s response.” --New York Times Book Review

“Ever since the pandemic began, and well before that, Andy Slavitt has been an indispensable voice of reason and urgency when it comes to America’s health. This book comes at a crucial moment as he explains, in accessible and engaging terms, how we got here and what must happen next.” ―
Pete Buttigieg, Former Presidential Candidate and Mayor of South Bend, Indiana

“Informative and often enraging account of ‘missed opportunit[ies]’ in the U.S. government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic … offers critical insights for mitigating the next public health crisis.” ―
Publishers Weekly

“A page-turning thriller detailing the tick-tock of the worst public health disaster in a century.” ―
Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent, CNN

"One of the most well-connected figures in medicine and health policy... He’s become a go-to account for the daily inside scoop on where the U.S. is progressing and where it’s failing. [His Twitter thread] is also a good source of a dose of humanity ― including his viral thread inviting people to share a photo and short caption that best summarizes their life in the pandemic. It will make you laugh and cry." --
Elemental

“He’s not swaggery; he doesn’t come across as particularly commanding. But then leadership isn’t always blustery or elected. Slavitt is a policy wonk turned cage rattler, and in this time of pandemic, he’s emerged on Twitter and TV as one of the more straightforward, consistent sources of information, a health care administrator with a talent for getting senators and CEOs to call him back.”
--The Chicago Tribune

“As CMS administrator, he was able to work across the aisle, though quietly, more than some predecessors. His pragmatic problem-solving (he dislikes the word “technocrat”) approach helped him build good ties with much of the health care industry and many governors, including those in red and purple states.” --
Politico

“During his tenure at CMS, he has repeatedly proven to be an effective problem solver that engages stakeholders to craft consensus-based solutions.” --
American Medical Association

“He’s as knowledgeable about health care as anyone I’ve met. He’s one of the few people that can really integrate all of the aspects.”
--Bill George, former Medtronic CEO

“With decades of experience delivering health care services to millions of Americans, Andy has developed a track record as an effective and innovative leader who gets results. As acting administrator at CMS, Andy has played a crucial role in leading efforts to combat health care fraud, reform health care delivery, and improve health outcomes.”
--Amy Klobuchar

“Andy pairs a deep understanding of U.S. health care with a unique ability to execute honed over years as a private-sector leader. And as the bipartisan make up of United States of Care demonstrates, Andy’s expertise is recognized by Republicans and Democrats.’’
--Denis McDonough, Former White House Chief of Staff

About the Author

ANDY SLAVITT was President Biden’s White House Senior Advisor for the Covid response at the beginning of his term where he oversaw direct communication with the public on the pandemic. He has led many of the nation’s most important health care initiatives, serving as President Obama’s head of Medicare and Medicaid and overseeing the turnaround, implementation and defense of the Affordable Care Act. Slavitt is the “outsider’s insider”, serving in leading private and non-profit roles in addition to his government services. he is founder and Board Chair Emeritus of United States of Care, a national non-profit health advocacy organization as well as a founding partner of Town Hall Ventures, a healthcare firm that invests in underrepresented communities. He co-chaired a national initiative on the future of health care at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He chronicles what goes on inside the government and across the nation at town halls, in USA Today, and on Twitter. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School, he and his wife have two grown sons.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press (June 15, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250770165
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250770165
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.58 x 1.2 x 9.57 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 473 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
473 global ratings
It reads like fiction, and I wish it were
5 Stars
It reads like fiction, and I wish it were
If you you are reading this, you and I lived through one of the worst pandemics in American history, and like me, you watched it unfold from the cheap seats. Andy Slavitt was courtside and privy to data and conversations opaque to the rest of us. This book is a memoir of one man's experiences during the pandemic and the lessons that can be learned and applied to the next one. Written in a conversational tone, I can almost picture Andy sitting across the table from me with a steaming mug of coffee telling me his stories from the pandemic. Because of his work in the Obama administration many will label this as a partisan attack on Trump. It is not. True Trump deserves some of the blame but there is blame enough to go around. Read this book with an open mind, the eye of a skeptic, the viewpoint of a fly on the wall and let's all learn how we can better prepare for the next pandemic, because it is coming.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2021
In Preventable, Andy Slavitt walks us through the timeline of the COVID experience revealing how incompetence and misconduct coupled to create one of the greatest failures of our time. He connects fateful decisions with their disastrous effects, tapping into the experiences of those most directly impacted. The social, cultural & political framing is essential & adds to the bold contrasting of what could have and should have been.
Andy is informed, insightful & honest as he looks ahead encouraging realistic, effective strategies for our future.
Andy proves once again that the American people are very fortunate to have him looking out for us. Thank you, Andy!
49 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2021
I knew the pandemic was on its way to the United States in January 2020, apparently before the White House did, when clients in China described the horrific situation there, forwarding illicit videos via WeChat. My mainland associates endured about two months of misery, and then the worst was behind them. I was hoping that the United States, with its focus on scientific research and topnotch (if unequally distributed) health care would have figured out effective ways to push back against the virus.

It was not to be.

I started looking around for sources of information that I could trust, and Andy Slavitt cut through the noise with his clear and cogent assessments. I started following him on Twitter and listening to his In the Bubble podcasts. I even bought a few of the Livinguard ("one g") masks for my collection. I ordered this book nine months ago, and finished it on the day that the Supreme Court reaffirmed the legality of the ACA.

The book itself, excluding notes and exhibits, is about 250 pages, a fast read. The focus is on the current pandemic as it unfolded in 2020, describing the collapse of the systems designed to support the United States during such a crisis, systems that had been undermined and underfunded -- for political reasons -- over the prior ten years. The book also illuminates some of the major flaws in our not-exactly-public health care system. In The Folly of the Free Market Pandemic, he describes how pharmaceutical companies ignore impending disasters like antibiotic-resistant bacteria because it's simply not profitable to produce new products, how the richest hospitals can rake in a small windfall by lending money to state governments, and of course how insurance companies are enriching themselves at everyone else's expense. It's all about profits, and we, the taxpayers, health care providers, and patients, are collateral damage. "Whether you believe capitalism has some role to play in health care or not, during the pandemic the system only served its masters."

Most of the blame, however, falls to the former guy and the echo chamber he assembled to advise him. Thanks to that administration's self-serving negligence and desire to avoid accountability, hundreds of thousands of Americans lost an average of ten years of their lives, and many millions more suffer long-term morbidities. Perhaps even worse, a substantial percentage of Americans were inculcated with anti-science, pro "freedom" propaganda that has prevented them from listening to experts, wearing masks, or getting life-saving vaccines.

The book ends in December 2020, with a brief Afterward where Andy explains why he agreed to help the new administration mount a federal response to the pandemic. Although he doesn't discuss it in any detail, his leadership was key to getting the vaccines distributed to hundreds of millions of Americans in record time. That story, I'm hoping, will be the topic of the next book.
101 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2021
Slavitt offers a unique perspective as both an insider and outside observer of America’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in this play-by-play historical account of the inside baseball. He shows how the lack of a recent historical frame of reference for pandemic infectious disease and evolving scientific knowledge of the novel virus complicated the nation’s response as the gaps in were filled in by armchair experts, punditry and politics and disseminated by social media to an exasperated population desperate for answers and greater certainty.
4 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2021
The simple narrative of Trump's arrogance, ignorance, and naked ambition fueling the pandemic doesn't account for the contributions of American culture and entrenched economic structure and medical systems. Andy Slavitt was instrumental in getting Obamacare to function, and he was well positioned to observe the failures of the Trump administration's dealings with COVID-19, as well as to participate in citizen efforts to combat the pandemic in the absence of Federal leadership. Preventable is the story of failures not only of the Trump administration but also of the profit-driven American approach to healthcare, and the fracturing of American solidarity in the face of crisis.

The book combines a broad view of policy failures at multiple levels with close-up vignettes of the real-life consequences, along with ideas for preventing future catastrophes of this sort.

Slavitt's accounts of White House staff, health department officials, and outside groups having to maneuver to get the attention and cooperation of a disengaged and even hostile president, and the need to flatter the President and convince him that necessary actions were his own brilliant ideas are chilling.

Slavitt challenges the reader to participate in political and social changes to address the inequities that exacerbated the pandemic while unfairly burdening those who were most important in doing the essential work of dealing with it.
22 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2021
If you you are reading this, you and I lived through one of the worst pandemics in American history, and like me, you watched it unfold from the cheap seats. Andy Slavitt was courtside and privy to data and conversations opaque to the rest of us. This book is a memoir of one man's experiences during the pandemic and the lessons that can be learned and applied to the next one. Written in a conversational tone, I can almost picture Andy sitting across the table from me with a steaming mug of coffee telling me his stories from the pandemic. Because of his work in the Obama administration many will label this as a partisan attack on Trump. It is not. True Trump deserves some of the blame but there is blame enough to go around. Read this book with an open mind, the eye of a skeptic, the viewpoint of a fly on the wall and let's all learn how we can better prepare for the next pandemic, because it is coming.
Customer image
5.0 out of 5 stars It reads like fiction, and I wish it were
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2021
If you you are reading this, you and I lived through one of the worst pandemics in American history, and like me, you watched it unfold from the cheap seats. Andy Slavitt was courtside and privy to data and conversations opaque to the rest of us. This book is a memoir of one man's experiences during the pandemic and the lessons that can be learned and applied to the next one. Written in a conversational tone, I can almost picture Andy sitting across the table from me with a steaming mug of coffee telling me his stories from the pandemic. Because of his work in the Obama administration many will label this as a partisan attack on Trump. It is not. True Trump deserves some of the blame but there is blame enough to go around. Read this book with an open mind, the eye of a skeptic, the viewpoint of a fly on the wall and let's all learn how we can better prepare for the next pandemic, because it is coming.
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Customer image
29 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Im2bz
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book on the handling of the Covid pandemic in the US.
Reviewed in Canada on May 7, 2024
Well write first hand account of the handling of the pandemic in the US. Politics are ever present.