The First Shots: The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780358569848)

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 St駱hane 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.

Author: Brendan Borrell
ISBN-10: 0358569842
ISBN-13: 9780358569848
Publisher: Mariner Books
Language: English
Published: 10/26/2021
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.13h x 6.30w x 1.26d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 05/01/2021 pg. 15
Publishers Weekly 08/23/2021
Kirkus Reviews 09/15/2021
Library Journal 11/19/2021 pg. 1