September 18, 2020
Bulletin interne de l'Institut Pasteur
Publication of the book A Perfect Storm by Philippe Sansonetti
From March to May, Philippe Sansonetti, Honorary Professor at the Institut Pasteur and Professor at the Collège de France, chronicled the emergence, spread and likely development of the COVID-19 outbreak as it happened, providing a critical view, reliable information and a unique summary – all of which is now available in his book Tempête parfaite (Perfect Storm), published by Editions du Seuil.
We are living in an era of coronaviruses. After SARS and MERS, COVID-19 is the third highly pathogenic coronavirus to emerge in less than 20 years. But public authorities failed to grasp the danger represented by these outbreaks. Back on January 24, Philippe Sansonetti, Professor at the Institut Pasteur and the Collège de France, began to chronicle the pandemic that he could see was coming. On March 16, in an empty lecture hall at the Collège de France, he gave a lecture entitled "COVID-19: Chronicle of an expected pandemic," which was widely broadcast online.