Gilbert and her colleagues immediately began working on a vaccine using Zhang’s data. The Shanghai virologist Professor Zhang Yongzhen first decoded the virus’s genetic structure and published his results on the internet. Then, at the end of 2019, a novel, occasionally fatal respiratory illness appeared in Wuhan, the sprawling capital of central China’s Hubei province, and by early January was spreading outside China. “I learned how to design a vaccine, get it manufactured, get approvals for a clinical trial and get that clinical trial up and running,” Gilbert told the Observer last week.
Importantly, the latter is caused by a coronavirus, the same type of virus that is responsible for Covid-19. This is, in part, a testament to the width of their experience as exemplified, at Oxford, by Gilbert who years earlier had set up her own vaccine research group and had already worked on trials of vaccines for Ebola and later for the recently emerged Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers). Our politicians may have bungled national Covid strategies, but our scientists have performed confidently. The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been developed at breathtaking speed. In addition, Britain’s geneticists have been hailed for their efforts in detecting potentially dangerous new virus strains – by carrying out the lion’s share of virus variant sequencing across the planet. In developing a Covid vaccine that is easy to transport and cheap to administer, the Oxford Group has again underlined the strength of UK science, which has already been bolstered by the country’s remarkable Recovery trial which last week revealed the efficacy of another lifesaving, anti-Covid drug: Tocilizumab. Negative comments pose the risk of undermining that confidence,” Pollard told the Observer last week. “I think we really need people to make positive statements about vaccines to build confidence. For good measure, the WHO also fell into line with the UK’s decision to delay second dose vaccinations to increase primary protection against the disease. These claims were firmly debunked last week by the World Health Organization, which gave the vaccine its glowing recommendation. Some US observers have criticised protocols for the vaccine’s trials, while French president Emmanuel Macron recently claimed the Oxford vaccine was “quasi-ineffective” for people over 65.
It has been a remarkable journey for the Oxford Vaccine Group and in particular for its leaders, Gilbert and Pollard, who have worked tirelessly to create their cheap, easy-to-distribute vaccine and to defend it, patiently and politely, from attacks by pundits and politicians.
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