Dan Keck reviewed Shot to Save the World by Gregory Zuckerman
Review of 'Shot to Save the World' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Very informative to learn that the end of quarantines brought about by COVID vaccines were due in part to:
• Lessons learned from unglamorous work on medications for malaria and AIDS
• Decades of mRNA studies
• Computer modeling
• Earlier research backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to combat disease in poor areas of the world
If the COVID pandemic had occurred any earlier in human history, the results would have been even more devastating.
It's good that the author documented the struggles of the scientists and entrepreneurs who, after years of slow scientific progress, were able to quickly develop effective COVID vaccines.
The main downside is the writing style seemed a little odd to me. There were lots of short one-sentence paragraphs and quotes from main characters that didn't add anything to the story. And occasionally you come across text that seems completely out of place, …
Very informative to learn that the end of quarantines brought about by COVID vaccines were due in part to:
• Lessons learned from unglamorous work on medications for malaria and AIDS
• Decades of mRNA studies
• Computer modeling
• Earlier research backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to combat disease in poor areas of the world
If the COVID pandemic had occurred any earlier in human history, the results would have been even more devastating.
It's good that the author documented the struggles of the scientists and entrepreneurs who, after years of slow scientific progress, were able to quickly develop effective COVID vaccines.
The main downside is the writing style seemed a little odd to me. There were lots of short one-sentence paragraphs and quotes from main characters that didn't add anything to the story. And occasionally you come across text that seems completely out of place, like a reference to the TV show The Office, or the phrase "a serious dis."
Also, while the author admits that science is a "long, hard slog" where failure isn't really failure but an opportunity to learn, the book nonetheless focuses only on the winners of the COVID vaccine race (aside from some mention of drug giant Merck failing to partner with one of the successful labs). It would be interesting to learn about those who tried and failed to make COVID vaccines, and what the scientific community learned from those efforts. But maybe that's another book.