Investigates why, when all the tools to avert a catastrophe were available, the world failed to prevent the Covid-19 disaster. Examining the business opportunities and pressures that helped shape the world's failed response, Stephen Gowans concludes that the novel coronavirus had a helper in bringing about the calamity: capitalism.

Addresses human diseases from a wider and holistic perspective, especially looking at morbidity from an ecological viewpoint. The book also looks at infections from an evolutionary perspective. These perspectives, although known, are largely neglected in healthcare systems.

Focuses on the feasibility and design of a multinational or globally interoperable electronic health record system to track and prevent the spread of disease of BSL-4 infections. Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 and the history of the multinational spread of zoonotic diseases, it is clear that a global effort is needed.