Acknowledgments Dedication Preface Section 1. LESSONS 1. From Theory to Practice 2. Next Time, Testing First 3. The Irreplaceable Public Sector 4. Holding Our Breath 5. The Challenge of Addressing Multiple Crises 6. The Invisible Mental Health Burdens of a Pandemic 7. Pandemics and Prisons 8. The Necessity of Speaking with Care 9. Health Behavior 10. The Caring Infrastructure 11. Does Today Matter More Than Tomorrow? 12. Telling Different Stories with the Same Data 13. How Our Expectations Shape Our Perceptions of Reality 14. Can Contact Tracing Work Here? 15. Prescription Against Worry Section 2. STORY 16. Political Decisions and Science 17. Should We Be More Upset By This? 18. The Responsibility of Experts 19. Defining Our Goalposts 20. The Limits of Our Science 21. The National Character 22. The Right to Bear News 23. The Story of COVID-19 24. Why Did We Close Schools? 25. The Limits of Our Tolerance 26. Mismanaging Messages 27. The Vaccination Glass Half Full Section 3. ETHICS 28. Time for an Ethics Refresh? 29. Who Goes First? 30. What's Most Important? 31. Achieving Health Equity, Efficiently 32. The Long Shadow of Medical Racism 33. Health Inequities Beyond COVID-19 34. A Hard Weight 35. Mandating Vaccines 36. Leaving the World Behind 37. Digital Surveillance 38. Balancing Autonomy and Individual Responsibility 39. Profits and Profiteering Section 4. EMOTIONS 40. Grief and Loss 41. Recognizing and Moving Beyond Our Collective Grief 42. Epistemic Humility During a Global Pandemic 43. The Selling of Vaccines 44. Will We Stop Being Afraid? 45. Hope Dies Last 46. Can We Forget? 47. The Centrality of Compassion 48. False Confidence 49. A Tale of Volition 50. Trust and COVID-19 Section 5. THE FUTURE 51. The New Us? 52. Who Decides? 53. Fixing Our Health System After COVID-19 54. HIV and COVID-19 55. Guns and the Unanticipated Consequences of COVID-19 56. Policies That Persist 57. The Invisible Work of Public Health 58. Will Better Public Health Funding Be Enough? 59. Chronic COVID 60. COVID-19 Collectivism 61. Can We Be Led? 62. COVID-19 and the Office 63. A COVID-19 Poverty Surprise 64. Is it Over Yet? 65. Now What? Sources

"The Turning Point: Reflections on a Pandemic is a profound, comprehensive and thought-provoking analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic and its far-reaching effects on our society. This fascinating book explores the intersection of public health, policy, and human behavior and offers a roadmap for building a healthier future." -- Laura Magaña, PhD, President & CEO Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) "Uniquely insightful and admirably-researched, The Turning Point offers a bold new approach to pandemic preparedness - one focused on overall health and well-being." -- Martin A. Makary, M.D., M.P.H., New York Times bestselling Author of The Price We Pay "The Turning Point: Reflections on a Pandemic is a timely expose of the COVID-19 pandemic and its broader impact through the lens of lessons learned that can inform future public health emergencies and responses. It is an important and valuable read for policy makers and preparedness planners who desire not to repeat our most recent mistakes." -- Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director, American Public Health Association "The Turning Point offers frank and thought-provoking reflections on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic from two of the nation's most prominent public health thought leaders. Stein and Galea's roadmap on how to prevent and respond to future epidemics should foster community resilience, putting the 'public' back in 'public health'. Written in an approachable style that should appeal to everyone, its essays should be required reading for public health students, policymakers and health journalists." -- Steffanie Strathdee, PhD, Harold Simon Distinguished Professor, University of California San Diego Department of Medicine and author of THE PERFECT PREDATOR: A SCIENTIST'S RACE TO SAVE HER HUSBAND FROM A DEADLY SUPERBUG

Michael D. Stein is Professor and Chair of Health Law, Policy and Management of the School of Public Health at Boston University. He is primary care doctor and has been a leader in general medicine and substance use research and policy for decades. He is Executive Editor of Public Health Post, a popular website on matters of population health. He is the author of award-winning novels and works of non-fiction. He has been interviewed by Terry Gross on

Selling point: Reveals how COVID-19 became a critical turning point in our engagement with key public health issues Selling point: Features insights for motivating positive change in areas such as climate change, gun violence, social and economic justice, and health equity Selling point: Offers a forward-looking vision of a post-pandemic world for policymakers, activists, politicians, and citizens seeking to create a healthier world