Vaxxers: A Pioneering Moment in Scientific History

Written by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green

Narrated by Heather Long and Nicky Diss

*The inside story of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, from two of the leading scientists who created it. Fully updated for paperback publication with a preface and a new chapter .*

This is the story of a race - not against other vaccines or other scientists, but against a deadly and devastating virus.

On 1 January 2020, Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University, read an article about four people in China with a strange pneumonia. Within two weeks, she and her team had designed a vaccine against a pathogen that no one had ever seen before. Less than 12 months later, vaccination was rolled out across the world to save millions of lives from Covid-19.

In Vaxxers, we hear directly from Professor Gilbert and her colleague Dr Catherine Green as they reveal the inside story of making the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and the cutting-edge science and sheer hard work behind it.

This is their story of fighting a pandemic as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Sarah and Cath share the heart-stopping moments in the eye of the storm; they separate fact from fiction; they explain how they made a safe vaccine in record time with the eyes of the world watching; and they give us hope for the future.

Vaxxers invites us into the lab to find out how science will save us from this pandemic, and how we can prepare for the inevitable next one.
(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Release date: Jul 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781529369908

Sarah Gilbert

Sarah Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford and a Senior Research Fellow at Christ Church. Having devoted her career to developing vaccines against infectious diseases, since January 2020 she has been the Oxford Project Leader for the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. Professor Gilbert has over 25 years of experience in the design and early development of new vaccines, and a commitment to increasing public understanding of science. In 2021 she was awarded a Damehood in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Reviews for Vaxxers

[breic-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found fascinating the details about vaccine production, and also how the authors' research enlaced with their personal lives. Unfortunately, especially in the second half the book began to feel rather dumbed down and repetitive—particularly the pleas for funding, and defense of science. Perhaps that is understandable in the context of vaccine hesitancy and vaccine politicization. But it seemed I wasn't in the target audience. I wanted more details, not pablum.

> And not just round the clock but against the clock too: samples had to be processed within four hours or the cells would start to die and the tests would be void. People were working in the lab until two or three in the morning, and up to ten days back-to-back. Two couples made donations for us to have healthy meals delivered to the site every day for months. It made us feel noticed and supported and more importantly it stopped us feeling hungry. The catering facilities were shut, and we were all running out of change for the vending machines, and hungry people make mistakes.

> He suggested that if we only did half of the toxicology study, in either males or females, we would only use half of the remaining vaccine. We would then have enough vaccine to do a phase I trial in whatever sex of humans the toxicology study had been done in. It was not something we would normally propose but it would untie the knot. We were, however, unable to come to an agreement so the clinical trial was never carried out