Viral The Search For The Origin Of CoviD-19

Winners of the Paul Ehrlich Prize The dramatic story of the married scientists who founded BioNTech and developed the first vaccine against COVID19. Nobody thought it was possible. In midJanuary 2020 Ugur Sahin told Özlem Türeci his wife and decadeslong research partner that a vaccine against what would soon be known as COVID19 could be developed and safely injected into the arms of millions before the end of the year. His confidence was built upon almost thirty years of research. While working to revolutionize the way that cancerous tumors are treated the couple had explored a volatile and overlooked molecule called messenger RNA they believed it could be harnessed to redirect the immune systems forces against any number of diseases. As the founders of BioNTech they faced widespread skepticism from the scientific community at first but by the time SarsCov2 was discovered in Wuhan China BioNTech was prepared to deploy cutting edge technology and create the world’s first clinically approved inoculation for the coronavirus. The Vaccine draws back the curtain on one of the most important medical breakthroughs of our age it will reveal how Doctors Sahin and Türeci were able to develop twenty vaccine candidates within weeks convince Big Pharma to support their ambitious project navigate political interference from the Trump administration and the European Union and provide more than three billion doses of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine to countries around the world in record time. Written by Joe Miller—the Financial Times’ Frankfurt correspondent who covered BioNTech’s COVID19 project in real time—with contributions from Sahin and Türeci as well as interviews with more than sixty scientists politicians public health officials and BioNTech staff the book covers key events throughout the extraordinary year as well as exploring the scientific economic and personal background of each medical innovation. Crafted to be both completely accessible to the average reader and filled with details that will fascinate seasoned microbiologists The Vaccine explains the science behind the breakthrough at a time when public confidence in vaccine safety and efficacy is crucial to bringing an end to this pandemic.