About the Author

Donald G. McNeil, Jr. spent almost his entire career at The New York Times, starting as a copy boy in 1976. For twenty-five years, he was a science correspondent, reporting from sixty countries as he covered global health and infectious diseases, including AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, SARS, Zika, swine flu, and bird flu. His prescient reporting on the coronavirus epidemic and his insightful appearances on The Daily podcast helped The New York Times win the 2021 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service. He also won the 2020 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism, the 2007 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Grand Prize, and awards from GLAAD, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. He is the author of Zika: The Emerging Epidemic and The Wisdom of Plagues: Lessons from 25 Years of Covering Pandemics.