David Heath (4)

Pretty good read, despite the heavy load of science (biology was never my forte and I managed to stick to physics and chemistry throughout my high school career and various aspects of earth sciences thereafter, so there was a lot of stuff to learn here). The science parts were actually pretty good. The parts about scientists writing grant proposals and getting, or more often not getting, well-deserved grants: boring. The long part about founding Moderna was business reporting and not show more interesting AT ALL. I forced myself to read it, but it slowed me down so much that I didn't finish the book before the library wanted it back. Almost, though; I doubled down and finished the last two chapters in the morning before I returned it.

From the hideously boring chapter on non-scientist, greedy entrepreneur Stephane Bancel comes one notable quote: (Kenneth Chien, Moderna co-founder, speaking to the French version of Vanity Fair): "You are going to hear a lot of things about Stephane. Good: a visionary, a genius somewhere between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. And at least not so good: a bubbling, arrogant, unbearable boss." Cracking up here: when the "good" thing associates have to say about someone is to compare him to Bezos and Musk, that's pretty horrible.

Either there's a terrible typo on page 207 (first page of The Race, final chapter) or I've totally missed the plot all along. "Eight days after Graham's team crafted a new vaccine" (which vaccine? what date?) "SARS-CoV-1 first emerged in the United States." SARS-CoV-1 was the 2003 epidemic known at the time as simply SARS, which isn't really covered in this book, although I vividly remember the stringent hospital restrictions here in Canada when my daughter had an appendectomy during that time. Hopefully that should read "SARS-CoV-2 first emerged". But with no dates and NO INDEX (why! factual science books and history books need indices!) it's just a puddle of confusion for the unsuspecting, unsophisticated, and unwary reader until the infamous Trump interview ("totally under control") confirms the timing two pages later.

Anyway, in the final chapter the pace picks up and whoosh, whoosh, they have a vaccine and zip-zap it gets tested and it works unbelievably well, far better than they hoped, without notable side effects except at the very highest dosage (so all they needed to do was dial the dose back a bit and administer less potent but still amazingly effective doses). All done, end of story? Unfortunately not.

The epilogue details the failure of the vaccination program to completely conquer the pandemic, due to the rise of anti-vax and anti-science activism, which is still playing out worse and worse all the time. When the author mentions the virtual eradication of measles as a triumph of vaccination and effective public heath action with fewer than two dozen cases in 2020, it's just sad. Based on my report, my daughter has decided not to read this book. YMMV. show less

I think this would better be titled "A history of vaccination, including the race for a COVID-19 Vaccine." The race for a COVID-19 vaccine is really the first and last forty minutes or so, with the rest being a history of vaccine development and experimentation, including missteps and mistakes. Just like Rosalind Franklin is DNA's unsung hero and Einstein's wife Milevia Maric is for relativity, the effort to find RNA-based vaccines for coronaviruses has Katalin Karikó. That's most of the show more first part of the COVID-19 story here. The middle story of vaccines overall underscores a history of sad treatment of children (and others) from the first person a smallpox vaccine was tested on, to unfortunate child victims of incorrect vaccines for measles and polio. show less

This book discusses exactly what I have been trying to inform my friends about....mRNA vaccine development is not new. You will read how scientists for years have been creating and perfecting a vaccine to help future, unknown viruses. You'll also learn a lot about vaccine development over time. This book does a fantastic job explaining the facts about vaccines and their usefulness. It is a message that so desperately needs to be shouted from the rooftops in today's society.