In what has been quite a contentious period during the pandemic, untangling all the various vaccine information and misinformation has been difficult for many people.
This book - The Vaccine- inside the race to conquer the COVID-19 pandemic by Joe Miller is a fascinating journey through an amazing scientific achievement for the benefit of the globe.
If you didn’t know much about the fragility and paradoxical strength of the human immune system then this book will go through the scientific facts. The book also gives some basic history on other vaccines and explains how the foundations for the COVID-19 vaccine where already there due to the first COVID virus - SARS-COV-1. There’s also some information about how various big businesses work in obtaining deals with medical companies.
The book has an overall sense of foreboding - the author has intensely discussed the process with the married Turkish doctors who developed the vaccine, knowing in the early days that the unknown virus was going to turn into a full blown pandemic. It was gripping in the sense that this dynamic couple knew what was going to happen and started the process of developing a vaccine as soon as they were able.
Overall, it is a very good work of non-fiction and aside from the interesting scientific information, it is also a remarkable story of human success and overcoming adversity.
Susannah