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Summary
Summary
The full inside story of the high-stakes, global race for the lifesaving vaccine to end the pandemic
Heroic science. Chaotic politics. Billionaire entrepreneurs. Award-winning journalist Brendan Borrell brings the defining story of our times alive through compulsively readable, first-time reporting on the players leading the fight against a vicious virus. The First Shots , soon to be the subject of an HBO limited series with superstar director and producer Adam McKay ( Succession, Vice, The Big Short ), draws on exclusive, high-level access to weave together the intense vaccine-race conflicts among hard-driving, heroic scientists and the epic rivalries among Washington power players that shaped 18 months of fear, resolve, and triumph.
From infectious disease expert Michael Callahan, an American doctor secretly on the ground in Wuhan in January 2020 to gauge the terrifying ravages of Disease X; to Robert (Dr. Bob) Kadlec, one of Operation Warp Speed's architects, whose audacious plans for the American people run straight into the buzz saw of the Trump White House factions; to Stéphane Bancel of upstart Moderna Therapeutics going toe-to-toe with pharma behemoth Pfizer, The First Shots lays bare, in a way we have not seen, the full stunning story behind the medical science "moon shot" of our lifetimes.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Borrell debuts with a powerful behind-the-scenes look at Operation Warp Speed, the effort to develop a Covid-19 vaccine in record time. Through interviews with "current and former government officials and members of the Trump White House," Borrell focuses on the scientists who made use of cutting-edge genetic technologies to win the race to immunity. There's Moncef Slaoui, the operation's chief scientific adviser, who took the helm when "it was less than operational and it wasn't moving at warp speed," and Barney Graham, the deputy director at the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center, who was "out to prove that vaccine design could move faster than ever under his pathogen-preparedness model." Borrell also details the rivalries that slowed things down--Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary in Health and Human Service's Office for Preparedness and Response, contacted an executive at Hanes in March 2020 and arranged with the company to produce cloth masks for every American household, only to have that nixed by Jared Kushner. Borrell's granular account reveals the inspiring work of scientists, who despite the holdups, succeeded "in spite of the politics at the time," and were "a testament to the grit and ingenuity of the American people." The result is a page-turning introduction to a key part of the pandemic. (Oct.)
Kirkus Review
How the Covid-19 vaccines came to be. Governments often dithered, but scientists and entrepreneurs were on the ball. Outside magazine correspondent Borrell delivers a vivid portrait of the combination of drudgery, greed, legerdemain, and brilliance that made the vaccines a reality in record time. The arrival of the pandemic in the U.S. in January 2020 galvanized America's public health establishment and a dozen pharmaceutical companies ranging from aggressive startups such as Moderna to international behemoths like Pfizer. All were aware that developing a vaccine is horrendously expensive and risky but that governments were eager to make every effort to ensure success. Still, the path remained bumpy. The old method of growing viruses in large stainless-steel vats was facing a new technology in which a vaccine consisted of bits of viral RNA that activate the body's immune response equally well. New or old, it had to work, and Borrell offers a meticulous, thrilling account of the testing process. First, researchers tested lab animals to determine if the vaccine protected them from the virus. It did. Then human volunteers received it to find a proper dose and check for side effects. Only then were thousands given either vaccine or placebo and then watched for months. Some vaccines flopped, but the best provided more than 90% protection. Led by Lawrence Wright's The Plague Year, most Covid books emphasize chaotic, self-serving politics and the pandemic's devastation, a dismal one-two punch. Borrell does not ignore ignorant or apathetic leaders, but by concentrating on the vaccines, he tells a story with a happy ending--at least as of May 2021, when his account ends. Drawing on extensive interviews, the author uncovers heroes and villains, works hard, if not always successfully, to explain virology and vaccine technology for a lay readership, and excels in recounting the cutthroat pharmaceutical world in which the process of developing a vaccine can bring riches or bankruptcy. An exciting, readable exploration of an extraordinary scientific breakthrough. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
An Outside magazine correspondent whose award-winning journalism has appeared in venues ranging from the Atlantic to Wired, Borrell draws on exclusive emails and insider emails to track the race to produce The First Shots to protect against COVID-19; look for an HBO limited series. In Deep Denial, multi-award-winning CNN anchor Cuomo reflects on the fault lines in American society revealed by the pandemic--from a hobbled public health care system to a failure to commit to equality and racial justice--and more personal thoughts on home and family after he contracted COVID-19 and kept reporting from his basement (150,000-copy first printing). CNN chief medical correspondent, who's also been in the thick of COVID-19 reporting, Gupta gives us World War C, answering major questions on how the pandemic unfolded and what happens next, e.g., can we obliterate the virus and, if not, how do we live with it? (250,000-copy first printing). The pandemic has shown us the crucial work done in our communities by E.R. Nurses, and the mega-best-selling Patterson joins forces with Walk in My Combat Boots coauthor Matt Eversmann and Edgar finalist Chris Mooney to reveal the extent of our indebtedness.
