This is the incredible story of the scientists who created a coronavirus vaccine in record time.

In Longshot, investigative journalist David Heath takes readers inside the small group of scientists whose groundbreaking work was once largely dismissed but whose feat will now eclipse the importance of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine in medical history. With never-before-reported details, Heath reveals how these scientists overcame countless obstacles to give the world an unprecedented head start when we needed a COVID-19 vaccine.

The story really begins in the 1990s, with a series of discoveries that were timed perfectly to prepare us for the worst pandemic since 1918. Readers will meet Katalin Karikó, who made it possible to use messenger RNA in vaccines but struggled for years just to hang on to her job. There’s also Derrick Rossi, who leveraged Karikó’s work to found Moderna but was eventually expelled from his company. And then there’s Barney Graham at the National Institutes of Health, who had a career-long obsession with solving the riddle of why two toddlers died in a vaccine trial in 1966, a tragedy that ultimately led to a critical breakthrough in vaccine science.
With both foresight and luck, Graham and these other crucial scientists set the course for a coronavirus vaccine years before COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China. The author draws on hundreds of hours of interviews with key players to tell the definitive story about how the race to create the vaccine sparked a revolution in medical science.

From the Introduction...

The COVID-19 vaccine is one of the greatest achievements in modern medicine. For the first time in history, we created vaccines quick enough to tame a pandemic. The speed with which they were developed was, by historical standards, unparalleled. The polio vaccine, which has nearly eradicated a crippling disease that even afflicted a US president, was 50 years in the making. Despite herculean efforts over four decades, the creation of an effective HIV vaccine still eludes some of the most brilliant minds in medical research. Yet just days after China disclosed the true nature of a mysterious outbreak in Wuhan, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted in what was left of his childhood Brooklyn accent that we would have a COVID-19 vaccine in just 12 to 18 months.

Some of his peers considered the prediction a longshot...

Meet The Author: David Heath

David Heath is an award-winning investigative journalist. He has worked at several news organizations, including CNN, USA Today, and the Center for Public Integrity. His work has helped to change policies and laws and has even led to criminal indictments. His articles have exposed illegal insider trading in drug research, questionable medical research, and the political influence used to derail tougher toxic-chemical standards. His work has appeared on PBS Frontline, PBS NewsHour, the CBS Evening News, the Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Time, Newsweek, the Daily Beast, Vice News, Scientific American and Mother Jones. He has won more than two dozen national journalism awards, including the Goldsmith, the Gerald Loeb and George Polk. His work with others has been nominated for a national Emmy and he has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize three times. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

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Praise

Longshot is more than just a superb recounting of the development of a vaccine for COVID-19. It’s also a fascinating dive into the business of high stakes science, a group biography of some extremely competitive research scientists, and in some ways a medical thriller. David Heath is both a gifted writer and a tenacious reporter – the only combination that could produce a book like this one.
—Daniel Okrent, author of the best-seller Last Call and former public editor of the New York Times

"David Heath’s book Longshot provides a powerful and engaging antidote to the nonsense, lies, and confusion about the highly effective and life-saving coronavirus vaccines. Heath’s sharp eye tells the drama behind the scenes as experts in infectious diseases quickly figured out what was happening in Wuhan, China, took advantage of advances in medical science to develop the first vaccine in just 338 days, and then started thinking about the next pandemic. A riveting read." —David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author

“For those who believe—and perhaps fear—that the COVID-19 vaccines were created in a frenzy, David Heath reveals the truth: These lifesaving vaccines were the product of years of laborious research by brilliant scientists who battled greed and bureaucracy even as they were battling emerging viruses. Heath brings a keen investigative eye to a side of the scientific world most of us never see, let alone understand.” —David Boardman, dean of Klein College of Media and Communication, Temple University, and the former executive editor of the Seattle Times

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LONGSHOT

Longshot

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Meet The Author: David Heath

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