COVID has changed the world for those who were lucky enough to survive. The pandemic brought us a new normal, whether we like it or not. While we are going on with our busy lives, for many of us, there remain many open questions about what happened and the big picture. This book review of COVID Wars covers health historian Ronald Gruner’s second history book. Read about the author’s thesis on America’s struggle over public health and personal freedom, and why this book is not just another COVID book, but also of scientific value.
Disclosure: Ad. The book “COVID Wars – America’s Struggle over Public Health and Personal Freedom” is a sample of my choice from JRB Communications LLC, the publisher Libratum Press, and the author didn’t endorse this post. I wrote it entirely myself, representing my own 100% honest opinion.
The Argument: America’s Struggle over Public Health and Personal Freedom
In contrast to many other developed countries, the United States’ measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 were at the state level. His comparison of the US COVID-19 death rates with those of other developed countries reveals that the US death rates per million inhabitants were much higher than those of these countries.
A central argument of Ronald Gruner’s book is that COVID contributed to dividing the American Nation. Republican-governed states and Democratic-governed states in the US handled the measures to reduce the spread of the virus quite differently. The author argues that the former had relatively higher death rates than the latter due to their openness. Furthermore, vaccination rates were lower in Republican-governed states than in Democratic-governed states.
He grouped the states by an already established scale that rates the measures to reduce the spread of the pandemic together, building a scale from 0 to 100. To compare the COVID-19 deaths per million among US states and with those of other developed states, he used data from Johns Hopkins University, including those reported by the respective countries.
How Is the Book Organized, and What Does the Book Cover?
The book encompasses 10 chapters and many tables. The author begins with the discovery of the virus in 2019, followed by past warnings about the potential of future pandemics and the regular planning for preparedness. Because the US is a federal, not a central, state, responsibility lies not in one hand, often leading to multiple voices.
The author covers how the free press, the partisan politics of an election year, and time pressure contributed to splitting the American people into at least two groups regarding handling the pandemic. He also covers the changes occurring after the change in the federal government.
One chapter addresses school closures and their advantages and disadvantages for this generation of students.
The author also discusses the access deaths due to homicide, suicide, and other reasons. To estimate these numbers, he used the five-year trends for this category.
In many chapters, the author compares the findings with those of other developed countries and places the pandemic within a historical and global context.
What I Liked about Ronald Gruner’s Book
When people are stressed and don’t get answers, there is a proper ground for self-made theories, explanations, and even conspiracy theories. I applaud the author for writing them down. There were even two I had never heard of before.
I particularly liked how the author compared the COVID pandemic with historic pandemics (e.g., plague, Spanish flu, Asian flu, bird flu) and how they were handled. What was the same, what was different, and why? Within this framework, he concluded that America struggled over the conflict of interest between public health and personal freedom.
My Takeaways from the Review of COVID Wars
Gruner’s book is an excellent inventory of data related to the pandemic. This vast data collection can provide the foundation for further studies that utilize more complex statistics, such as those beyond trends and correlations. However, such analysis was beyond the scope of this book and requires detailed knowledge of Principal Component Analysis, ANOVA, and similar complex methods.
Such future investigations could delve deeper into the contributions of various measures, vaccination rates, the economy, population density, age, and other factors to health outcomes in the 50 states.
Where to Buy COVID Wars
This well-researched document of recent American history is worth reading. It is available in Kindle, paperback, and hardcover.
You can buy these versions on Amazon for $8.99, $18.50, and $32.50.
The book is also available at Barnes & Noble and Walmart. Compare shipping costs to find the most cost-efficient deal.
My Experience
Alaska was one of the more open states and reopened in stages. A friend of mine lives in Maryland. After travel was again permitted, albeit with strong restrictions and measures, she visited me. She said that Alaskans were much easier going about COVID than back home. I found the lockdown measures in Alaska mentally draining. Communities were closed, cutting off people from health care. As a result, I have a neglected, broken hand because the 1st care in the neighboring community, Fairbanks. So, how much more was done down in Maryland?
Looking at my friends, those leaning towards voting for democrats are vaccinated. When group meetings with more than 10 people were again allowed, some non-profit clubs excluded non-vaccinated members from participating in their events.
About Ronald Gruner
Ronald Gruner is a health historian. He is also the founder and CEO of three tech companies and has 45 years of experience in this business. In 2022, he published “We the Presidents”, a history book about how US presidents have influenced America and the World.
He lives with his wife in Naples, Florida. In his spare time, he enjoys playing golf.
Photo: N. Mölders
© 2013-2026 Nicole Mölders | All rights reserved
I believe whole-heartedly in being vaccinated and following the science. In the UK we didn’t lockdown early enough and it caused many more thousands of deaths. Basically we are a very small and crowded island and it is hard to get away from people, hence the necessity of being careful and wearing masks. And yet I agree that during lockdown there were instances of people with cancers unable to get their appointments and then treatment and the waiting lists for general surgeries are still high because of the backlog caused by the lockdowns. However we know the NHS was under huge strain and we owe a huge debt to them and I don’t blame them for the backlog.
There’s always a balance to be taken between freedom (to not wear masks or lockdown) or to care for your fellow citizens and obey the rule during exceptional circumstances – which the pandemic was. I know where I stand on that.