The coronavirus pandemic began less than two years ago, but it seems like a lifetime ago.
It was on March 16, 2020, when the first participants of the Moderna clinical trials arrived at Kaiser Permanente Health Center in Seattle to receive the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In fact, many local organizations in Seattle, such as Fred Hutch, played a huge role in the history-making development of the vaccine as part of Operation Warp Speed.
Journalist and author, Brendan Borrell, joined New Day NW to talk more about the monumental scientific achievement surrounding the rapidly-developed COVID-19 vaccines, how the vaccines were even able to be developed on Operation Warp Speed's incredibly short timeline, and who the scientific heroes are in his new book, "The First Shots."
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The full inside story of the high-stakes, global race for the lifesaving vaccine to end the pandemic
Heroic science. Chaotic politics. Billionaire entrepreneurs. Award-winning journalist Brendan Borrell brings the defining story of our times alive through compulsively readable, first-time reporting on the players leading the fight against a vicious virus. "The First Shots," soon to be the subject of an HBO limited series with superstar director and producer Adam McKay ("Succession," "Vice," "The Big Short"), draws on exclusive, high-level access to weave together the intense vaccine-race conflicts among hard-driving, heroic scientists and the epic rivalries among Washington power players that shaped 18 months of fear, resolve, and triumph.
From infectious disease expert Michael Callahan, an American doctor secretly on the ground in Wuhan in January 2020 to gauge the terrifying ravages of Disease X; to Robert (Dr. Bob) Kadlec, one of Operation Warp Speed’s architects, whose audacious plans for the American people run straight into the buzz saw of the Trump White House factions; to Stéphane Bancel of upstart Moderna Therapeutics going toe-to-toe with pharma behemoth Pfizer, "The First Shots" lays bare, in a way we have not seen, the full stunning story behind the medical science “moon shot” of our lifetimes.
Segment Producer Joseph Suttner. Watch New Day Northwest 11 AM weekdays on KING 5 and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.