The First Shots

Starred review from August 23, 2021
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. Through interviews with “current and former government officials and members of the Trump White House,” Borrell focuses on the scientists who made use of cutting-edge genetic technologies to win the race to immunity. There’s Moncef Slaoui, the operation’s chief scientific adviser, who took the helm when “it was less than operational and it wasn’t moving at warp speed,” and Barney Graham, the deputy director at the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center, who was “out to prove that vaccine design could move faster than ever under his pathogen-preparedness model.” Borrell also details the rivalries that slowed things down—Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary in Health and Human Service’s Office for Preparedness and Response, contacted an executive at Hanes in March 2020 and arranged with the company to produce cloth masks for every American household, only to have that nixed by Jared Kushner. Borrell’s granular account reveals the inspiring work of scientists, who despite the holdups, succeeded “in spite of the politics at the time,” and were “a testament to the grit and ingenuity of the American people.” The result is a page-turning introduction to a key part of the pandemic.

November 19, 2021

The story of the remarkable achievement of producing safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 in less than a year is increasingly obscured by political controversy. Journalist Borrell (The Atlantic, National Geographic) illuminates the story from the U.S. perspective, beginning in Wuhan, China, and continuing through the initial stages of deployment. There was no shortage of drama as scientists, corporations, politicians, and career government employees struggled to come together to combat the pandemic. Some of the players had been working on important aspects of the science for years, leading to the use of mRNA as the key component of the first two successful vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. Borrell reports the perspectives of key players in the corporations, the HHS, NIH, FDA, CDC, the military, and Operation Warp Speed. Clashes of egos and the potential prestige and profits involved in being the first to succeed produce a story that reads like a thriller. Inside sources reveal missteps, reversals, conflicts, disappointments and triumphs as career officials and scientists work sometimes in tandem with each other, politicians, and the White House, and sometimes in conflict. VERDICT Relying on extensive firsthand sources, Borrell has produced a readable and detailed early account of developing and implementing vaccines.--Richard Maxwell, Porter Adventist Hosp. Lib., Denver

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2021
How the Covid-19 vaccines came to be. Governments often dithered, but scientists and entrepreneurs were on the ball. Outside magazine correspondent Borrell delivers a vivid portrait of the combination of drudgery, greed, legerdemain, and brilliance that made the vaccines a reality in record time. The arrival of the pandemic in the U.S. in January 2020 galvanized America's public health establishment and a dozen pharmaceutical companies ranging from aggressive startups such as Moderna to international behemoths like Pfizer. All were aware that developing a vaccine is horrendously expensive and risky but that governments were eager to make every effort to ensure success. Still, the path remained bumpy. The old method of growing viruses in large stainless-steel vats was facing a new technology in which a vaccine consisted of bits of viral RNA that activate the body's immune response equally well. New or old, it had to work, and Borrell offers a meticulous, thrilling account of the testing process. First, researchers tested lab animals to determine if the vaccine protected them from the virus. It did. Then human volunteers received it to find a proper dose and check for side effects. Only then were thousands given either vaccine or placebo and then watched for months. Some vaccines flopped, but the best provided more than 90% protection. Led by Lawrence Wright's The Plague Year, most Covid books emphasize chaotic, self-serving politics and the pandemic's devastation, a dismal one-two punch. Borrell does not ignore ignorant or apathetic leaders, but by concentrating on the vaccines, he tells a story with a happy ending--at least as of May 2021, when his account ends. 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.

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