Read our sample translation of A Virologist in a Changing World

About the book

‘Undiagnosed pneumonia: request for information.’ In the final hours of 2019, Marion Koopmans receives the innocuous news that will turn the world on its head. Almost exactly a year later, she boards a plane to Wuhan, China, as part of the WHO team investigating the origins of the largest pandemic in a century. In A Virologist in a Changing World, Marion Koopmans revisits her experiences with major outbreaks including SARS, Ebola, MERS, H1N1 and of course the COVID-19 pandemic.

Together with her son, Mischa Huijsmans, she reflects on science in times of crisis, on the ever-fascinating nature of viruses and how they work, on her sudden rise to prominence, on kooky conspiracies and pandemic deniers, on global cooperation, fast funding and the sometimes murky lines between politics and science, to ultimately ask the question: will we be ready for the next pandemic?