Plagues in the Nation

An expert legal review of the US government's response to epidemics through history-with larger conclusions about COVID-19, and reforms needed for the next plague.


With this narrative history of the US through major outbreaks of contagious disease, from Yellow Fever to the Spanish flu, from HIV/AIDs to Ebola, Polly Price examines how law and government affected the outcome of the epidemics-and how those outbreaks have in turn shaped our government. Using the story of the efforts and missteps to contain COVID-19 and looking back on the panic-inducing arrival of Ebola on American soil (both of which the author followed from the front lines), Price presents a fascinating history that has never been fully explored and draws larger conclusions about the holes in our governmental and legal response procedures. This book examines how our country learned-and failed to learn-how to address the panic and chaos that are the companions of contagion, what policies failed America again and again and begins to lay out what we must do better next time.