S4 Ep1813: 4/8 A Shot to Save the World: The Inside Story of the Life-or-Death Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine, by Gregory Zuckerman @GZuckerman - a podcast by John Batchelor

Photo: A somewhat lesser-known pharmaceutical firm:  ". . . how crucial it is to bring together people with different experiences and perspectives in the fight against COVID-19. At Mallinckrodt, we’re doing our part – working across our global organization and leveraging the diverse talent, skills and backgrounds of our employees – to continuously innovate to help patients and support workers on the front lines."

-  Hardcover – October 26, 2021

Few were ready when a mysterious respiratory illness emerged in Wuhan, China, in January 2020. Politicians, government officials, business leaders, and public-health professionals were unprepared for the most devastating pandemic in a century. Many of the world’s biggest drug-and vaccine-makers were slow to react or couldn’t muster an effective response.

 

It was up to a small group of unlikely and untested scientists and executives to save civilization. A French businessman dismissed by many as a fabulist. A Turkish immigrant with little virus experience. A quirky Midwesterner obsessed with insect cells. A Boston scientist employing questionable techniques. A British scientist despised by his peers. Far from the limelight, each had spent years developing innovative vaccine approaches. Their work was met with scepticism and scorn. By 2020, these individuals had little proof of progress. Yet they and their colleagues wanted to be the ones to stop the virus that was holding the world hostage. They scrambled to turn their life’s work into life-saving vaccines in a matter of months, each gunning to make the big breakthrough—and to beat each other for the glory that a vaccine guaranteed.