“The Last High” was one of my favourite reads in 2020, so I was very excited to see Daniel Kalla was releasing another novel again so soon. Kalla is such a talented writer and his obvious (but still readable and understandable-which for some authors is not the case) medical knowledge and descriptions are really what sets his novels apart. It is undeniable that he brings a unique voice in the thriller/suspense genre.
What I liked most about this novel is that it brings up current issue (vaccine controversy, outbreak) without actually being about COVID. It’s SO refreshing to hear references to COVID as being something of the past (not that meningitis sounds great either..). Again, Kalla writes with medical knowledge that reads not as “pushy”.. but with a knowledgeable and well rounded perspective that is also informative. I really appreciated his forwardness in his Author’s Note on his opinions on some of the topics described in the book.
Lost Immunity was a great and quick read that I would highly recommend, especially if you love fast paced, medical dramas.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada, NetGalley and Daniel Kalla for the opportunity to read this ARC!

For the last decade, Daniel Kalla has been one of my very favourite authors so obviously I was thrilled to read an early copy of Lost Immunity! I was not disappointed.

A devastating strain of meningitis has hit Seattle and it's killing children incredibly fast. Dr. Lisa Dyer has recently taken over the role of Chief Public Health Officer and she must find a way to stop the spread of this illness and save these kids.

An excellent medical thriller - Lost Immunity hits home for me as I am both a mother and work in Public Health so can relate to a lot of characters in the book. In relation to our real world and Covid as a public health emergency this book really hits home. Great writing, well rounded characters, terrible illness burning through a city = pretty darn perfect book.

Thank you to #Netgalley and @SimonSchusterCa for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Lost Immunity.

You'd think that the last book I'd want to read while still in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic is one about the next big outbreak. But here's the wonderful appeal of genre fiction, and the reason I've been reading so much romance, mysteries and thrillers in the past year: you know how it's going to end. You won't know the specifics, and the best stories keep you on tenterhooks throughout, but you know that if you read a romance, the couple will end up together; if you read a mystery, the bad guy will be revealed by the end; and if you read a thriller, the situation will have a resolution.

And that's why Lost Immunity, by doctor-author Daniel Kalla, is the perfect comfort read for these times. Unlike the current real world COVID-19 pandemic, where I can only wait my turn for the vaccine, and watch helplessly as new, more contagious variants appear, Kalla's thriller gives me a chance to live vicariously through Seattle's chief public health officer Lisa Dyer, who is at the forefront of stopping the pandemic in her fictional universe. 

Kalla's story takes place post-COVID-19, when a meningitis outbreak at a Bible camp results in the deaths of teenagers, and reveals a deadly, highly contagious strain of the disease. Dyer responds swiftly, negotiating the rapid approval of a vaccine on the verge of Phase 4 testing in Iceland, where a similar pandemic had recently been recorded and contained, inoculating campers and their families, and setting up mass immunization clinics around Seattle. She deals with corporate bureaucracy and anti-vaxxers (apparently 'vaccine hesitant' is their preferred term), led by a naturopath with an autistic son and a nurse girlfriend working at one of Dyer's clinics. And she also contends with her own anti-vax family, which becomes rather urgent when the contagion spreads to younger children and Dyer's own six-year-old niece is endangered. 

Watching Dyer in action, along with Nathan and Fiona from the vaccine development team, is comforting. They're up against a scary disease, and working hard against time, but early clinical trials have proven the vaccine effective, and despite the urgency of the events, the reader never truly feels the outbreak is out of their control. Perhaps most comforting is that, unlike the current pandemic, Kalla sets his thriller up with a bad guy, someone intent on tampering with the vaccinations, and whose perspective we see in chapter interludes. The results of this bad guy's plan becomes clear when some of the vaccinated teens fall ill with a really serious, potentially deadly, condition, and while doctors conclude it's less a side effect than a random, unexpected occurrence (I forgot the technical term they used), the occurrence is still statistically relevant enough to jeopardize the plan for widespread vaccination.

The bad guy's identity and motives are sadder than I expected, but their very existence is, to me, a comfort. It's much easier to conceive of a bad guy being stopped than it is to control a worldwide pandemic, and while a similar situation playing out in real life would be terrifying and infuriating, Kalla's thriller is comfortingly familiar.

I loved this book. Kalla's writing is crisp, and his pacing brisk. He creates characters we care about: from Fiona the grieving widow, to Lisa's husband genuinely trying to fix their troubled marriage, to Lisa's mentor Angela who battled COVID-19 and is now battling cancer, and even to Lisa's anti-vax sister, who is forced to reexamine her beliefs when her daughter is in danger. His story may be a bit too much, too soon for people on the frontlines of battling the COVID-19 pandemic. But at least for those of us fortunate enough to be able to work from home, and still waiting for a be-all, end-all COVID-19 solution that seems far too slow in coming, Lost Immunity is an entertaining and comforting alternate reality, where outbreaks can be contained, science wins over politics (the government is remarkably absent from this novel, which is unrealistic, but I personally didn't mind), and where the villain is an individual / group of individuals rather than a virus we can neither see nor control.

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Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for an egalley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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The review will go live on my blog on April 6, 8 am ET.

Just finished reading LOST IMMUNITY by Daniel Kalla. Thank-you to Simon & Schuster Canada for my ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. Official publication date is today April 4th, 2021.

I was hooked by the "One vaccine, One hope, What could go wrong?", on the front cover. Felt very fitting for what is going on in the world these days. Just a warning ⚠️ that this may not be for everyone! Definitely read the synopsis before checking it out. That being said it was a 5 🌟 for me!

Post COVID-19 (When will this be exactly?!) Lisa Dryer the chief public health officer for Seattle has just been tasked with stopping a deadly meningitis outbreak. A outbreak that is targeting the youth of Seattle.

With an increasing death rate, Lisa decides to contact and convince Nathan Hull, a VP of a pharmaceutical company to release his final-phase vaccine early to help end her outbreak. But it will be a controversial pre-release due to the amount of people this new vaccine will be tested on, protests from anti-vaxxers and concerns from her own team.

Once the vaccine clinics start rolling out the vaccine across the city, and it finally looks like the outbreak is at bay as more of the population gets vaccinated. People start dying from mysterious side effects, and it looks like the vaccine might be to blame...or is it something or someone else?

Daniel Kalla does it again 👏, with a medical thriller that knocks it out of the park. I was hooked from the first chapter. I enjoyed how he showed three different sides of the outbreak from the perspective of the public health department, the pharmaceutical company and the anti-vaxxers. You won't be able to put this one down, definitely reccomend.

Daniel Kalla has done it again. His ability to author books that educate and entertain is unsurpassed!
Lost Immunity tackles the contentious debate of benefits versus risks of vaccination. Meningitis has been a scary threat for young people and a looming concern for their parents for decades. At a time when our lives are so consumed with Covid 19, it is a refreshing break to read a medical story that is focused on an epidemic other than Covid.
Be prepared to read it cover to cover in a short period of time- you won’t want to put this well written, fast paced book down.
Many thanks to Daniel Kalla, Simon & Schuster Canada, and NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy and review this ARC. Lost Immunity is a must read!

Daniel Kalla is an emergency doctor in downtown Vancouver B.C and the author of many medically themed novels. In his latest he writes about modern pandemic.

What a thrilling read.

“Lost Immunity” brings us to Seattle during an outbreak of meningitis that started nearby a Bible camp. The most vulnerable victims are children and teenagers. The chief public office, Dry Dryer and her team quickly take the necessary measure to contain the outbreak....An epidemic is in the making... an experimental vaccine deployed to battle a lethal outbreak - until patients start dying of unknown causes.

As usual Mr. Kalla mixes lots of information into a very suspenseful drama. Along this exciting page-turner we not only have a story that showcases the benefits of inoculation but also the point of views of anti-vaxxers and of the Pharmaceutical Company. Most of us will recognize the medical terms in this novel so Mr. Kalla did not expend on their meanings. The narration and dialogue are said in the everyday language.

Although a hard subject, the style is smooth and easy to read. The plot and characters are realistic. Because of the Covid 19 outbreak we have at the present it easy to relate to the characters and feel the pains of those suffering but most of all the devotions given by the frontline workers: excellent characterisation.

On a final thought: for a vaccine to be effective, a great % of the population has to be vaccinated. Yes, there will be “vaccine injury” as stated in this story but the benefits outweigh the risks....

Another strong story told by a master storyteller

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon&Schuster for the free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first medical thriller I've ever read, and the first book by this author. And I must say, I'm sold on both.

The plot takes place in a post-covid world (lol what even is that?) and makes many references to how things were handled then.
There are so many incredible elements in this book. Dr Dyer is a complicated woman just trying to do the right thing. Her character gave me greater respect for public health officials, and how doing the right thing isn't always doing the popular thing.

The author is also not shy about showing disdain for the anti-vax community. One character, who is a sort of leader for Seattle anti-vaxxers, is written as almost a caricature, which seems appropriate.

Sometimes my brain got a little confused with all the heavy medical jargon, but otherwise, this is an excellent read.

Written by a doctor of emergency medicine working in Vancouver, his medical expertise shines through well in this story that's as gripping as it is informational.

I'd also like to extend a thank you to the author for working on the frontlines of this ongoing covid pandemic.

A must for your “To Be Read” list. Sitting at the edge of your seat and keep turning those pages, you don’t want to put it down until you reach the end!
Seattle post Covid-19, a form of meningitis is following campers from a Bible camp home, contact tracing, antibiotics, but it is spreading fast. Chief Public Health Officer, Lisa Dyer, and her team do all they can to contain the outbreak, but the testing shows the meningitis strain is the same as the one that killed many in Iceland 6 months ago. Lisa finds out about a viable vaccine that is in the last phase of testing, will they release it now? And once released what are the consequences?
Great read, as to what goes on in the heads of those responsible for our public health, vaccine hesitancy movement (anti-vaxxers), people on the fence about vaccines, people working in the pharmaceutical industry, …
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an opportunity of an early read for my honest opinion.

I love this author! He always sucks me in from the first chapter, it’s is always a race against the clock.

The book follows Dr. Dyer Seattle’s new Chief of Public Health as a epidemic hits. An epidemic that focuses on children. They start using a brand new vaccine but then their are bad side effects there. Throw in a antivaxxer story line and everyone is a suspect. This book ticks all the boxes for me. The writing is fantastic, the characters have depth and feel authentic. I read this in one sitting, I could not put it down.


I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book takes place after the Covid 19 pandemic is over and, even though I realize this is fiction, I was pretty happy that masks don't seem to be worn as a matter of course. Unfortunately now the City of Seattle is enduring an outbreak of a fast-acting and deadly strain of meningitis, and the only hope is a newly-developed vaccine that hasn't gone through all stages of testing yet. I was totally immersed in the story from the beginning and was quite impressed with how the author handled the vaccination issue, very fair and compassionate. I read and liked The Last High by this author but I liked this one even more and found it to be realistic and believable. There's a lot of informative data in the book that I found most interesting and some very well-developed characters. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Lost Immunity to a friend.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read this book prior to publication.

This review can also be seen at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3806477430

Daniel Kalla, a Vancouver ER doctor and author, tackles vaccine hesitancy in his newest novel, “Lost Immunity.”

Lisa Dyer, an epidemiologist and Seattle’s public health officer, has just been informed that there’s an outbreak of a deadly bacteria affecting children and teenagers. When she discovers that the initial victims have attended a nearby Bible camp, she races to take the steps necessary to contain the outbreak before there are more needless deaths. When it’s discovered that the bacteria is Type B, an aggressive form of meningitis, she contacts Nathan Hull, the 45 year old vice president and chief development officer of Delaware Pharmaceutical. His company has 50,000 doses of Neissovax and has been asked to inoculate Seattleites with this experimental drug. Although this vaccine raises recipient’s antibody titers to what are protective levels, it has never been released on any scale beyond a few early-phase-three trials.

As you can well imagine, Dyer faces backlash from anti-vaxxers, dubious government officials and her own team as she starts to roll out her risky strategy. Dyer has been trained and ready for this pandemic her whole career, but the 41-year-old is about to double under the stresses of an infectious outbreak she can’t control, a marriage on the rocks, a mentor dying from cancer, an awkward estrangement from her parents, and a sister who doubts her professional decisions. Things start to improve once the vaccine clinics are set up and administer Neissovax. Suddenly, people start dying from mysterious and horrific causes. The first place they point the finger? Yes, the vaccine itself.

Protest groups bring to light the Tuberculin vaccine meant to cure tuberculosis but ended up killing more people than it helped. They add concerns about the Cutter incident of the 1960s where 40,000 people were infected with Polio through vaccine meant to protect them and concerns of the Swine Flu vaccine in the late 70s which caused 100s of people to be incapacitated by the neurologic disease, Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
When one patient develops Steven-Johnsons syndrome two days after vaccination for meningitis, the team begins to think that science might not be to blame.

Relevant today with the race worldwide to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19 through vaccination, Kalla’s novel stresses that global acceptance of vaccination is essential to stop this horrific disease. Kalla uses his story to showcase the benefits and risks of vaccination, and although a strong believer that vaccination is among the greatest achievements of modern medicine, he informs readers about what drives anti-vaxxers. Kalla leaves us with some final thoughts: Vaccine hesitancy impacts more than just the anti-vaxxer or their loved one. For a vaccine to be effective, it depends on 70% of a community to develop immunity to an infectious threat in order to thwart its natural spread.

Thank you to Daniel Kalla, Simon and Schuster Canada, and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this spectacular advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Publishes May 4, 2021.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Publishers for a copy of "Lost Immunity: A Thriller" in exchange for my honest review.

As a reader of Dr. Kalla's books from the first one I have been a fan, especially for his attention to detail on all medical aspects of a book. This book was no exception as he presented both sides of vaccination programs - from people who truly believe and those who have vaccine hesitancy. As Dr. Kalla points out this book has never been more relevant than in today's world.

The story begins in Reykjavik, Iceland where Kristjan, a 15 year old was complaining of headache and soon presented with a lattice like rash and bloody blisters - then he was dead within two hours.
2 classmates also had symptoms and also passed away.

In Seattle, Washington Lisa Dyer (41) is the new Chief Public Health Officer. As she is leading a briefing on mandatory HPV vaccinations she learns of 4 young people who have died from meningitis after attending a Bible camp. The symptoms match those of the children in Iceland. Lisa quickly learns that they are dealing with Meningococcus Type B - a subtype that is resistant to current vaccines - and the same strain as the one that presented in Iceland the previous winter. How did it travel to the US without stopping in-between?

As the case count mounts, Delaware Pharmaceutical is about to run trials in Iceland to test a new experimental vaccine. Public Health wants to vaccine to immunize young people between 6 and 25 years of age to develop "herd immunity". Contact tracing from the kids that attended the camp is being done to make sure that everyone is started on prophylactic antibiotics. This strain of Meningitis is not airborne. It is carried by asymptomatic hosts - people who show no signs of illness but still act as reservoirs for it to spread.

As the cases increase, deadly complications occur causing public health to halt the vaccinations. There is someone (that is never quite identified) who is preparing to sabotage the entire program - tainted vaccines and hacking of websites. Then there is Max who is a naturopath and he has his own reasons for wanting to derail the program. He blames his son's autism on "vaccine injury". There is also the shadow of big pharma and what their role might be in the whole pro and anti vaccine movements.

This book was as thrilling as it was informative. I find that Dr. Kalla mixes a great read with information that leaves the reader thinking long after the last page has turned. I found myself wanting to keep turning those pages but hated the thought of the book ending. I am very much looking forward to the next book from Dr. Kalla.

I wish to extend thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster, Canada, for the ARC of this intense medical thriller by Daniel Kalla. The author is an ER physician in Vancouver, BC., who writes novels with medical themes based on sound scientific knowledge and research. I have been informed by and enjoyed Kalla's previous works and was happy to receive his latest book. There seems to presently be a scarcity of medical thrillers, a genre that is among my favourite. Kalla's novels are always believable and suspenseful.

Lost Immunity is set sometime after the COVID pandemic has ended. It doesn't guess how close or distant in the future its time frame is set. This book was written while the COVID virus was still spreading. Kalla uses his knowledge of life-saving vaccines in the past that saved many lives and ended some varied and dangerous diseases, and the viewpoints of anti-vaxxers who may slow down future efficiency. Medical terms that would have needed explanation a year ago are now known by many people, such as 'asymptomatic carriers' and 'herd immunity.'

The medical practitioners seem authentic, but I failed to engage with the characters despite my strong feeling of suspense and mystery. The story begins with an outbreak of a deadly form of meningitis in the Seattle area. This contagious bacterial infection mainly affects small children and teenagers. Lisa Dyer, Seattle's chief public health officer and her team, learn that this is the same strain of the disease that caused deaths in Iceland six months earlier but now seems to have gone dormant there. They contact Nathan Hall, vice-president of a pharmaceutical company that seems to have a viable vaccine for the disease. However, they have not completed testing it. After much persuading that it is needed immediately to save many young people's lives, they receive a large shipment of the drug, although test trials are not complete.

This risky strategy is opposed by some medical experts, government officials, and anti-vaxxers. The vaccinations seem to be successful in stopping the spread of meningitis and its death toll. Then, a horrible side effect is found among a small number of those vaccinated, throwing the vaccine into disrepute. It looks like someone has hacked into the medical files and deleted information about a person's death following the vaccine. Worse, there may have been contamination of a small number of closely guarded vials of the serum. There is now a rush to find out how a few of the vials were contaminated and causing life-altering side effects, or giving up on the vaccine rollout and letting children and their contacts die in the present meningitis clusters. The pharmaceutical company's reputation is in tatters, and parents are afraid to have their children vaccinated.
Recommended for people who enjoy intense, suspenseful medical mysteries.