The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine
by Brendan Borrell
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2021
320 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
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.
"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...The result is a page-turning introduction to a key part of the pandemic." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"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." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"For decades we'll be studying where our country succeeded and how it faltered in its fight against the worst pandemic in 100 years. In his vivid account of the tumultuous journey toward developing a coronavirus vaccine, Brendan Borrell offers immediate and hugely valuable insights. Beyond the chaotic politics, clashing egos and erratic logistics were unprecedented scientific achievements. Those audacious efforts, and the people behind them, come fully to life in Borrell's absorbing narrative." - Marty Baron, Executive Editor (retired) of The Washington Post
"In The First Shots, Brendan Borrell delivers a riveting, sometimes startling, sometimes chilling page-turner of a book. But this tale of the Covid-19 pandemic and the race to find vaccines to stop it is more than a good read. It's also a remarkable illumination of the politics, the personalities, and the human drama underlying a desperate scientific fight against an invisible enemy." - Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
"Just like the covid vaccine that went into your arm and mine, this book is an astonishingly powerful synthesis of intelligence, exertion, and speed. Brendan Borrell has written a compelling, up-to-the-minute chronicle of a pivotal moment in the history of science. You will learn something new on every page of The First Shots." - Dan Fagin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation
This information about The First Shots was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Brendan Borrell is Outside magazine correspondent and has written on science, health, and business for The Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek, National Geographic, Wired, and the New York Times. Borrell lives in Los Angeles, and The First Shots is his first book.
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