dr. lipkin. for my next book, he has already done an outline. my next guest is a doctor who was one of the great sources for my book "pandemic." if you pick it up you will see there are a bunch of pages about him and his fabulous work which he will share with us. thank you. >> what i like about this book that other authors have not touched on is the repeated cycles throughout history we have gone through with pandemics that we are still in. you made the point today, we are still doing the things that led to cholera around the world. we think about these issues of overcrowded lives, and these bad conditions as being "over there." but we are connected to everywhere on the planet by less than a day's flight away. that is what microbes do. the exploit new niches that we put up, adapt, and infect us. we created this perfect system. i would like to hope we are at the end of it. i would like to propose in a more positive and optimistic way, that in 50-100 years, generations will say, those guys had a lot of problems with infectious diseases. let's thin

dr. lipkin is discovering as we speak. what i do, i'm in a organization called eco health alliance, non-profit here in new york, signs based. we work on emerging diseases to understand what drives them, what are the underlying causes of pandemics? what is the science behind it? can we prove something is attached to the driver of a pandemic that leads to the spread and can we do something about that driver? so first of all, we need to know if these really are a big issue. the book lace it out very clearly. of course the science behind that, what is the real evidence that emerging diseases are on the rise? that we're in an age of increasing pandemics? so a few years ago, probably about a decade now, a group of us sat around and started talking about this i was working -- i just finished working at cdc i was working on wildlife diseases, including a global disease offing froms which seems off topic but actually is emerging disease of frogs that spread globally that wiped out species. even more significant than 1918 flu or cho

dr. lipkin. he is the director for the center of infection and immunity at columbia university. if anyone has seen the film "contagion," i will add that the scientist in that film is modeled on him. dr. lipkin: i am also the john snow professor which is particularly apt given that so much of this concerns cholera. i was told about this meeting and i generally accept these invitations. i was told that i could just skim the book and i began with that intent, but i read it cover to cover. i thought it was a beautiful book. for those of you who have not looked at it yet, you saw a bit of an example. you have burr versus hamilton, a whole description of the london underground and slumming. it is an elegant book. what i've decided to do today is something a little different, though i hope during the q&a we can talk about some of the interesting aspects of the west nile virus, and mers, and sars, and talk about things that may be of interest to you and talk about sonia's next book. that is the future of infectious diseases. the emphasis in this particular book is on the q diseases. the

dr. lipkin. for my next book, he has already done an outline. my next guest is a doctor who was one of the great sources for my book "pandemic." if you pick it up you will see there are a bunch of pages about him and his fabulous work which he will share with us. thank you. >> what i like about this book that other authors have not touched on is the repeated cycles throughout history we have gone through with pandemics that we are still in. you made the point today, we are still doing the things that led to cholera around the world. we think about these issues of overcrowded lives, and these bad conditions as being "over there." but we are connected to everywhere on the planet by less than a day's flight away. that is what microbes do. the exploit new niches that we put up, adapt, and infect us. we created this perfect system. i would like to hope we are at the end of it. i would like to propose in a more positive and optimistic way, that in 50-100 years, generations will say, those guys had a lot of problems with infectious diseases. let's thin