The First Shots: The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine

325 Pages·2021·9.19 MB·English

by  Brendan Borrell

6.125 × 9.25 SPINE: 1.0625 FLAPS: 3.5
$28.00 / HIGHER IN CANADA
THE FIRST SHOTS
PRAISE FOR
The EPIC RIVALRIES
“For decades we’ll be studying where our country succeeded and how it faltered in T
he full inside story of the high-
its fight against the worst pandemic in one hundred years. In his vivid account of the
tumultuous journey toward developing a coronavirus vaccine, Brendan Borrell offers and HEROIC SCIENCE stakes, global race for the lifesaving
immediate and hugely valuable insights. Beyond the chaotic politics, clashing egos,
vaccine to end the pandemic
and erratic logistics were unprecedented scientific achievements. Those audacious
BEHIND the
efforts, and the people behind them, come fully to life in Borrell’s absorbing narrative.”
Heroic science. Chaotic politics. Billion-
—MARTY BARON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR (RETIRED) OF THE WASHINGTON POST
RACE to the
aire entrepreneurs. Award-winning journalist
“In The First Shots, Brendan Borrell delivers a riveting, sometimes startling, sometimes Brendan Borrell brings the defi ning story of
chilling page-turner of a book. But this tale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the race to CORONAVIRUS our times alive through absorbing, fi rst-time
find vaccines to stop it is more than a good read. It’s also a remarkable illumination of reporting on the players leading the fi ght
the politics, the personalities, and the human drama underlying a desperate scientific against a vicious virus. The First Shots draws
VACCINE
fight against an invisible enemy.” on exclusive, high-level access to take us
inside the intense competition among bril-
— DEBORAH BLUM, PULITZER PRIZE–WINNING AUTHOR OF THE POISON SQUAD: ONE CHEM-
liant, hard-driving scientists and the epic
IST’S SINGLE-MINDED CRUSADE FOR FOOD SAFETY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
rivalries among Washington power players
BRENDAN BORRELL is an Outside that shaped eighteen months of fear, re-
“Just like the COVID vaccine that went into your arm and mine, this book is an aston-
magazine correspondent and has written ishingly powerful synthesis of intelligence, exertion, and speed. Brendan Borrell has solve, and triumph.
on health, science, and business for the written a compelling, up-to-the-minute chronicle of a pivotal moment in the history of From infectious disease expert Michael
Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek, Na- science. You will learn something new on every page of The First Shots.” Callahan, an American doctor secretly on
tional Geographic, Wired, and the New the ground in Wuhan in January 2020 to
— DAN FAGIN, AUTHOR OF THE PULITZER PRIZE–WINNING TOMS RIVER: A STORY OF SCIENCE
York Times. Borrell lives in Los Angeles, gauge the terrifying ravages of disease X;
AND SALVATION
and The First Shots is his first book. to Robert (Dr. Bob) Kadlec, one of Oper-
ation Warp Speed’s architects, whose au-
“Brendan Borrell has delivered the definitive account of the race to develop and man-
dacious plans for the American people run
ufacture the vaccines needed to combat COVID-19. The book does a masterful job of
straight into the buzz saw of the Trump
explaining the science behind the vaccines while unfurling a vivid story full of excep-
White House factions; to Stéphane Bancel
tional characters locked in a thrilling competition to do nothing less than try and save
the world. It’s a gripping tale of what happens when unlikely heroes battle through of upstart Moderna Therapeutics going toe
extraordinary circumstances.” to toe with pharma behemoth Pfizer, The
First Shots lays bare the full, stunning story
— ASHLEE VANCE, AUTHOR OF ELON MUSK: TESLA, SPACEX, AND THE QUEST FOR A FAN-
behind the medical science “moonshot” of
Available as an e-book and an audiobook
TASTIC FUTURE
Jacket design by Kerry Rubenstein our lifetimes.
Jacket illustration © Ben Wiseman
Author photograph © Ashley Barker $28.00 HIGHER IN CANADA
BREN DAN BORRELL
ISBN 978-0-358-56984-8
MARINER BOOKS
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
marinerbooks.com
1809542
1021
BBoorrrreellll__TTHHEEFFIIRRSSTTSSHHOOTTSS__jjaacckkeett..iinndddd 11 77//2266//2211 99::2211 AAMM
6.125 × 9.25 SPINE: 1.0625 FLAPS: 3.5
$28.00 / HIGHER IN CANADA
THE FIRST SHOTS
PRAISE FOR
The EPIC RIVALRIES
“For decades we’ll be studying where our country succeeded and how it faltered in T
he full inside story of the high-
its fight against the worst pandemic in one hundred years. In his vivid account of the
tumultuous journey toward developing a coronavirus vaccine, Brendan Borrell offers and HEROIC SCIENCE stakes, global race for the lifesaving
immediate and hugely valuable insights. Beyond the chaotic politics, clashing egos,
vaccine to end the pandemic
and erratic logistics were unprecedented scientific achievements. Those audacious
BEHIND the
efforts, and the people behind them, come fully to life in Borrell’s absorbing narrative.”
Heroic science. Chaotic politics. Billion-
—MARTY BARON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR (RETIRED) OF THE WASHINGTON POST
RACE to the
aire entrepreneurs. Award-winning journalist
“In The First Shots, Brendan Borrell delivers a riveting, sometimes startling, sometimes Brendan Borrell brings the defi ning story of
chilling page-turner of a book. But this tale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the race to CORONAVIRUS our times alive through absorbing, fi rst-time
find vaccines to stop it is more than a good read. It’s also a remarkable illumination of reporting on the players leading the fi ght
the politics, the personalities, and the human drama underlying a desperate scientific against a vicious virus. The First Shots draws
VACCINE
fight against an invisible enemy.” on exclusive, high-level access to take us
inside the intense competition among bril-
— DEBORAH BLUM, PULITZER PRIZE–WINNING AUTHOR OF THE POISON SQUAD: ONE CHEM-
liant, hard-driving scientists and the epic
IST’S SINGLE-MINDED CRUSADE FOR FOOD SAFETY AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
rivalries among Washington power players
BRENDAN BORRELL is an Outside that shaped eighteen months of fear, re-
“Just like the COVID vaccine that went into your arm and mine, this book is an aston-
magazine correspondent and has written ishingly powerful synthesis of intelligence, exertion, and speed. Brendan Borrell has solve, and triumph.
on health, science, and business for the written a compelling, up-to-the-minute chronicle of a pivotal moment in the history of From infectious disease expert Michael
Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek, Na- science. You will learn something new on every page of The First Shots.” Callahan, an American doctor secretly on
tional Geographic, Wired, and the New the ground in Wuhan in January 2020 to
— DAN FAGIN, AUTHOR OF THE PULITZER PRIZE–WINNING TOMS RIVER: A STORY OF SCIENCE
York Times. Borrell lives in Los Angeles, gauge the terrifying ravages of disease X;
AND SALVATION
and The First Shots is his first book. to Robert (Dr. Bob) Kadlec, one of Oper-
ation Warp Speed’s architects, whose au-
“Brendan Borrell has delivered the definitive account of the race to develop and man-
dacious plans for the American people run
ufacture the vaccines needed to combat COVID-19. The book does a masterful job of
straight into the buzz saw of the Trump
explaining the science behind the vaccines while unfurling a vivid story full of excep-
White House factions; to Stéphane Bancel
tional characters locked in a thrilling competition to do nothing less than try and save
the world. It’s a gripping tale of what happens when unlikely heroes battle through of upstart Moderna Therapeutics going toe
extraordinary circumstances.” to toe with pharma behemoth Pfizer, The
First Shots lays bare the full, stunning story
— ASHLEE VANCE, AUTHOR OF ELON MUSK: TESLA, SPACEX, AND THE QUEST FOR A FAN-
behind the medical science “moonshot” of
Available as an e-book and an audiobook
TASTIC FUTURE
Jacket design by Kerry Rubenstein our lifetimes.
Jacket illustration © Ben Wiseman
Author photograph © Ashley Barker $28.00 HIGHER IN CANADA
BREN DAN BORRELL
ISBN 978-0-358-56984-8
MARINER BOOKS
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
marinerbooks.com
1809542
1021
BBoorrrreellll__TTHHEEFFIIRRSSTTSSHHOOTTSS__jjaacckkeett..iinndddd 11 77//2266//2211 99::2211 AAMM
THE FIRST SHOTS
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The Epic Rivalries
and Heroic Science
Behind the Race
to the
THE
Coronavirus
Vaccine
FIRST
SHOTS
Brendan Borrell
MARINER BOOKS
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
Boston New York
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Copyright © 2021 by Brendan Borrell
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address
HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
marinerbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 978-0-358-56984-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-358-56618-2 (ebook)
Book design by Chrissy Kurpeski
Printed in the United States of America
ScoutAutomatedPrintCode
$ScoutAutomatedPO
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It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how
the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have
done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actu-
ally in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and
blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again
and again . . . who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devo-
tions . . . who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high
achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while
daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold
and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
— Theodore Roosevelt, April 23, 1910,
A version of which is on the wall of Barney Graham’s office at the
Vaccine Research Center of the National Institutes of Health
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CONTENTS
Cast of Characters ix
Prologue xiii
PArT 1: EMErGENCE
January 2020–March 2020
1. Sounds Like It Could Be Fun 3
2. Courage and Doubt 13
3. Not Sanctioned, Not Authorized 24
4. Our Bugs and Gas Guy 31
5. Stabilizing the Spike 42
6. Old School, New School 52
7. Oceanic Outbreak 64
8. Very Much Under Control 73
9. The President’s Powwow 80
10. This Ain’t Over 86
PArT 2: LOCKDOWN
March 2020–May 2020
11. A Company Is Born 99
12. running on Empty 110
13. Masks for Everyone 116
14. The Moonshot 123
15. return to Power 140
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viii | Contents
PArT 3: TESTING
May 2020–October 2020
16. Horse race 151
17. Battle rhythm 163
18. Masters of the Protocol 173
19. Three Hundred Million Doses 183
20. Plasma Drive 194
21. Trials 204
22. Tribulations 212
PArT 4: rOLLOUT
October 2020–January 2021
23. How Do You Know? 223
24. Winter Wave 232
25. Seniors First 242
26. The N-Hour 248
27. The Brave Endure 257
Afterword 269
Acknowledgments 272
Notes 275
Index 287
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