Pandora's Gamble

“She renders scientific issues in lucid, accessible prose that vividly conveys the insidious nature of potentially lethal microbes…A hard-hitting and timely report on a pervasive threat.”–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“In her new book, Pandora’s Gamble, Young lays out the shocking extent of lax laboratory standards and procedures, and lack of accountability and transparency, in the United States and around the world….Young’s book raises a much-needed alarm about the dangers of ignoring the need to do things right. The stakes are too high.”–Zeynep Tufekci, The New York Times“Pandora’s Gamble is a triumph of tenacity. Alison Young honed in on America’s poorly monitored labs before other reporters and used Freedom of Information to pry loose the government’s secrets. No other reporter has shown the discipline and patience to document this outrage.”–Marilyn W. Thompson, author of The Killer Strain: Anthrax and a Government Exposed“Rigorously reported and surgically presented, Pandora’s Gamble cuts through the partisan noise that obscured the answer to the greatest question of the century. Employing all the tools of true investigative reporting, Young presents the terrifying history of lab leaks and the people and institutions determined to keep them secret. Her decades of digging into the cultural, scientific, and political machinations few of us understood before 2020 now serves to remind us that ideological credulity and willful ignorance are not the domain of any one political party, but a bug of humanity itself. As COVID taught us time and again, human error poses a threat as great any nature may have lying in wait.”–J. David McSwane, author of Pandemic Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick“Before the rest of us were paying attention, Alison Young was covering the dangers of safety lapses at the world’s top laboratories. She opens her meticulously reported, deeply alarming book by exploring the ‘horrifying possibility’ that Covid-19 was the result of just such a breach in China. Essential reading for policymakers - and the public.”–Susan Page, Washington Bureau chief, USA TODAY, and author of Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power

Alison Young is a veteran journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor for national and regional news organizations, including USA Today, the Detroit Free Press and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. While in Atlanta, Young covered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her investigative reporting on science and health issues has received dozens of journalism awards, including from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In 2019, Young joined the faculty of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where she helps train the next generation of journalists.

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