The Long Shot: The Inside Story of the Race to Vaccinate Britain

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Kate Bingham’s new book, The Long Shot , is a gripping account of the UK Government Vaccine Task Force’s response to the pandemic by a remarkable, determined, thoughtful, and practical individual who was at the heart of the critical decisions that had to be made. An excellent read… Capturing the exceptional pace and energy of everyone involved in discovering and producing effective therapies against Covid-19.

With regards to the briefings against Bingham, one of the revelations I found most shocking was how Lee Cain, the Number 10 Director of Communications was briefing against her and the vaccine task force, despite the vaccine project being a flagship initiative of the Johnson government and one that was initiated and championed by Boris himself.At SV, Kate co-manages a number of global biotech venture funds which make investments into innovative companies developing novel therapeutics and she helped launch the Dementia Discovery Fund. For example, the vaccine task force was not able to build a bulk mRNA manufacturing capability in the UK. On 3 April 2020, Kate Bingham was told that the likelihood of any Covid-19 vaccine working was 15% at best.

The book describes how by adopting venture capitalist-style development contract writing and risk management and by making Britain especially attractive for vaccine trials (the NHS Registry was crucial here), Britain was able to steal a march on the US and the lumbering EU Commission in securing under contract the necessary production facilities. This is a brilliant account of the UK's world-beating COVID-19 vaccine project and makes excellent reading for anyone wanting to understand both the story of the UK COVID-19 vaccine programme and also how a successful large-scale project is delivered. The Long Shot is published as readers appear to have tired of Covid-19 and the miraculous vaccines have become more of a seasonal chore.We use Google Analytics to see what pages are most visited, and where in the world visitors are visiting from. The tragic and magic is all told in a thrilling uplifting and yet ultimately depressing (the government couldn't care less about preparing for the next pandemic) account is simply brilliant. Interesting insider insights contained in the book are: Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and Michael Gove do not come off badly in this book. The author warns that information spinners are a vast workforce in Whitehall; they are numerous and expensive and an absolute drag on efficiency and exist to spread misinformation if that suits the political purposes of the departments in which they reside. It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance.