The Covid Murders: Another American Health Policy Detective Story (The Irv Tinsley Health Policy Detective Series) by Greg Vigdor

The second in the Irv Tinsley Health Policy Detective Series, this book follows the acclaimed The Theory of Irv: An American Health Policy Detective Story in creating a new genre of novel: health policy detective stories that grapple with the very real problems of dysfunctional American health care policy. Like the first novel, The Covid Murders begins with a dead body. This time it is an unfortunate patient who dies on an operating room table in a suburban Nashville, Tennessee hospital. Thomas Baker’s open-heart surgery goes wrong, unleashing forces inside the hospital and out that threaten the public’s health. The investigation soon encounters big problems, including questions about other suspicious deaths at the Hospital. Could they all be explained by Covid? Or were these just the result of medical errors? Or is there a systematic care problem at play that threatens future patients? Or could it be something even worse? Meanwhile, the page turning medical thriller also explores serious matters of American health policy. It includes thoughtful commentary on the Nation’s recent experience with Covid. As the title suggests, the investigation is wrapped around this time. But even more, The Covid Murders goes where The Theory of Irv left off- exploring the fundamental defects of American health policy and the unfulfilled need for comprehensive reform to fundamentally improve the system for the American people.