Caitlin Rivers has a doctoral degree in public health epidemiology with a focus on outbreaks. She works at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as an associate professor and has worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she helped create the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics.
Crisis Averted: The Hidden Science of Fighting Outbreaks is Dr. Rivers’ first book. The book helps people understand how public health works, why it matters, and where it could be improved. Rivers describes the importance of early tools in the public health toolbox, like isolation and contact tracing, even today when more sophisticated resources are available. Chapters focus on different aspects of public health, including skills, truth telling, politics, mysteries and more. Rivers also does a nice job of using historical public health examples, as well as examples from outside of public health, to support the points she is making.
For anyone who wants to better understand public health, this book would be a great primer, not only for understanding the context of public health in our communities but also for learning some of the most relevant history. On the other hand, even those working in public health are likely to benefit from this well-referenced book whether by learning something new (or forgotten) or by considering Rivers’ framing of ideas related to the practice of public health today.
Contributed by: Charlotte A. Moser
Caitlin Rivers has a doctoral degree in public health epidemiology with a focus on outbreaks. She works at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as an associate professor and has worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she helped create the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics.
Crisis Averted: The Hidden Science of Fighting Outbreaks is Dr. Rivers’ first book. The book helps people understand how public health works, why it matters, and where it could be improved. Rivers describes the importance of early tools in the public health toolbox, like isolation and contact tracing, even today when more sophisticated resources are available. Chapters focus on different aspects of public health, including skills, truth telling, politics, mysteries and more. Rivers also does a nice job of using historical public health examples, as well as examples from outside of public health, to support the points she is making.
For anyone who wants to better understand public health, this book would be a great primer, not only for understanding the context of public health in our communities but also for learning some of the most relevant history. On the other hand, even those working in public health are likely to benefit from this well-referenced book whether by learning something new (or forgotten) or by considering Rivers’ framing of ideas related to the practice of public health today.
Contributed by: Charlotte A. Moser