The definitive guide to fighting coronaviruses, colds, flus, pandemics, and deadly diseases, from one of North America’s leading public health authorities, now updated with a new introduction on protecting yourself and others from COVID-19.

Dr. Bonnie Henry, a leading epidemiologist (microbe hunter) and public health doctor at the forefront of the fight against the worldwide COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, has spent the better part of the last three decades chasing bugs all over the world — from Ebola in Uganda to polio in Pakistan, SARS in Toronto, and the H1N1 influenza outbreak across North America. Now she offers three simple rules to live by: wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough, and stay at home when you have a fever.

From viruses to bacteria to parasites and fungi, Dr. Henry takes us on a tour through the halls of Microbes Inc., providing up-to-date and accurate information on everything from the bugs we breathe, to the bugs we eat and drink, the bugs in our backyard, and beyond. Urgent and informative, Soap and Water & Common Sense is the definitive guide to staying healthy in a germ-filled world.

DR. BONNIE HENRY is a public health physician, a preventative medicine specialist, and an epidemiologist currently serving as the provincial health officer for British Columbia. Previously, she was the director of Public Health Emergency Management at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and an associate medical officer at Toronto Public Health, where she was operational lead in the response to the SARS outbreak. She was also a consultant to the WHO during the 2001 Ebola outbreak in Uganda and on the STOP Polio eradication program in Pakistan, and she helped coordinate the response to the 2009 North American H1N1 pandemic. Dr. Henry is board-certified by the American College of Preventive Medicine, and she graduated from Dalhousie Medical School and completed a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of California, San Diego.

Bonnie Henry's profile page

Dr. Henry can deliver alarming news in a calm tone of voice, without relying on technical jargon; we pay attention, we absorb the news, but we don’t freak out. Treated like adults, we respond like adults . . . Those same communication skills are evident throughout [Soap and Water & Common Sense] . . . Henry writes clearly and concisely . . . Her narrative is full of surprising facts and bits of history.

Tyee