The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global High-Tech Challenge at the Interface of Science, Politics, and Illusions - Softcover

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Dr. Klaus Rose is a medical doctor by training and profession. In the 1990s, after clinical training, he joined the pharmaceutical industry. In 1999 at Novartis in Switzerland, he came across clinical studies in children and was intrigued. His eldest daughter suffered from Sturge–Weber syndrome, which is serious and very rare. Dr. Rose became passionate about “pediatric drug development” and what the European Medicines Agency (EMA) called “Better Medicines for Children.” He became global head pediatrics at Novartis from 2001–2005 and moved to the same position 2005–2009 at Genentech/Roche. After one more year at a regulatory company, he became an independent consultant in 2011. He advises companies on EMA “pediatric investigation plans” (PIPs), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pediatric requests or demands. He detected fundamental flaws in “Pediatric Drug Development“ and publishes about this (and more) in peer-reviewed journals and medical textbooks.

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The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global High-Tech Challenge at the Interface of Science, Politics, and Illusions discusses COVID-19 as the first pandemic in the Internet era and our current reality of continuous reports, news, and updates. Since its beginning, we were daily bombarded with news of what was happening around the world. There was no global political leadership. The United States was politically partially paralyzed. Russia and China hoped to gain diplomatic profile worldwide, but their vaccines are of limited efficacy, and trust in their clinical data is rightly low. The European Union did not order enough vaccines in time, but sued a large manufacturer for delivery delays. Now it is setting up yet another bureaucratic institution. At least the pharmaceutical or life science industry paved the way out, but is not enthusiastically praised for it. It would be too easy and superficial to blame mistakes of governments and leaders on stupidity. Idiocy exists, but we have to go deeper to understand how illusions and blind spots in today’s common perception and science, inertia, arrogance, conflicts of interest, competition of individuals, and states and institutions for public recognition have contributed to a multitude of flawed assessments and direct mistakes. Healthcare professionals and anyone interested in an in-depth understanding of humankind’s response to the COVID-19 challenge will not get around the key conclusions of this book.

The drawing on the book cover shows a scene from the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood, who has just entered her grandmother’s house and approaches her at her bed. But she does not know that the wolf devoured her grandmother, disguised as her, and waits to devour the Little Red Riding Hood, too. Just as how the Little Red Riding Hood is deceived by the wolf’s disguise, illusions played a key role in handling and intellectually processing the COVID-19 pandemic. Developing effective vaccines at almost the speed of light was a master achievement. The overall handling of COVID-19 was not. Without science and life science industry, we would not have effective vaccines, but why did most countries order them so late? Why did it take a year to approve their use in children? Why booster shots are started so late? Why are there so many who are hesitant about getting vaccinated? Idiocy plays a big part, but it does not explain everything. In our increasingly complex world, the COVID-19 pandemic is a global high-tech challenge at the interface of science, politics, illusions, and more. The fairy tale itself is very old, the drawing a bit younger. Also in the past, people knew the power of illusions. We will survive this pandemic, but we should overcome illusions that hinder a meaningful handling of life-threatening dangers. More pandemics will come. No white knight will take the stage like in a fairy tale. Getting rid of our illusions is our own job.