Michael Osterholm, University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy director, was driving to the airport the morning of Dec. 30, 2019, when his cellphone rang.

A colleague was on the line. Reports were trickling in about an unusual pneumonia spreading in Wuhan, China.

The moment felt eerily familiar.

Osterholm likens it to a seismologist watching the first needle tremors before an earthquake, unsure whether it will pass quietly or destroy everything in its path.

“Is there something to this, or is it just background noise?” he recalls in his new book, cowritten with journalist Mark Olshaker, “The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics ” (Little, Brown Spark).

“Is this something to alert the public to, or will it just cause needless worry and

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