Vaxxers: A Pioneering Moment in Scientific History

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As a grateful recipient of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, I take my hat off in thanks to these remarkable women. This book does an excellent job of detailing the process of modern vaccine development; the biochemical foundations, trial and safety protocols, and difficulties of securing funding - all whilst conveying the human element of being involved in such an important and heavily scrutinised undertaking. Sarah Gilbert, who created the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine with Catherine Green. Photograph: John Cairns/University of Oxford/PA Excellent and readable ... Vaxxers is so good that the book will be read for long after the pandemic is over. - Financial Times While a lot of this applies to many vaccines, some revelations are unique to the AstraZeneca jab. The first results of trials in people were complicated, with two dramatically different levels of protection, because some groups got half-doses. This was widely reported as a “mistake”, but the pair explain it was the result of resolving a (temporary) measurement problem to maximise safety. Meanwhile a German journalist gets one number horrendously wrong, and Germany bans the vaccine for the elderly, when no data warranted that. It is little comfort to know that other countries get science wrong too.

On 1 January 2020, Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University, read an article about four people in China with a strange pneumonia. Within two weeks, she had designed a vaccine against a pathogen that no one had ever seen before. Twelve months later, vaccination is being rolled out across the world to save millions of lives from Covid-19. Misinformation can spread faster than the virus, making it difficult to identify an actionable path to counter it. The content is often highly engaging, with simple messages that feed on our deepest fears and doubts. Although most people are unlikely to believe that the world is controlled by a reptilian elite, we do respond to information that is sprinkled with truth. Yes, the risk of catching the common cold can be reduced by a healthy diet, so why not Covid too, some might think. Chimpanzee Adenovirus: Bet you didn't know that! They used an adenovirus common in chimpanzees but not present in humans. Why? Well if they use an adenovirus common in humans, the virus would be wiped out before the body had a chance to make an immune response to the spike protein it is carrying. So we use a weakened chimpanzee one to allow the body a chance to recognise the spike protein and start making antibodies. Vaksin Oxford-AstraZeneca dikembangkan oleh Universitas Oxford dan kemudian diproduksi massal dan didistribusikan atas kerjasama dengan perusahaan biofarmasi, AstraZeneca. Oleh karena vaksin ini dikembangkan oleh sebuah laboratorium riset di dalam sebuah universitas, pembaca juga disuguhkan proses demi proses yang dihadapinya, tidak hanya hal-hal teknis seperti penelitian di laboratorium, tetapi juga hal-hal non-teknis yang tidak kalah substantif seperti pengajuan hibah. Penolakan, suasana "harap-harap cemas", kebahagiaan, mewarnai proses-proses tersebut.

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In addition, the Covid-19 vaccine deployment faces an unprecedented degree of uncertainty and complexity that will be exceedingly difficult to communicate. It may take years or months to know the exact duration of immunity resulting from a vaccine, if and when it needs to be repeated or how protective it is across different groups. Moreover, we are not talking about “the vaccine’” but rather many vaccines, each with distinct caveats. Anti-vaccine propaganda could be one of the toughest issues. Sarah Gilbert, Oxford’s redoubtable vaccine inventor, and Catherine Green, head of the university’s lesser known Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility, presumably called their book Vaxxers in riposte to the anti-vaxxers who stymie efforts to end this and other diseases. Those who invent wild inaccuracies about vaccines are a problem because they make people uncertain about life-saving jabs A “clear and insightful” takedown of the anti-vaccination movement, from its 19th-century antecedents to modern-day Facebook activists—with strategies for refuting false claims of friends and family ( Financial Times) Without an engaging and persuasive communications plan, the scientific progress made in developing the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine and those to come will have been for nothing.

Chosen as a Book of the Year 2021 by the Financial Times, Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Prospect, Guardian and The Times. One theory attributes growing vaccine hesitancy to the rise of misinformation and conspiracy theories emanating from the anti-vaxx movement. In 1840, when the Vaccination Act was introduced in the UK, the now familiar arguments were aired: vaccines cause harm; the alliance between medical science and government is driven by profit; vaccinations are an infringement of basic civil liberties; healthy lifestyles and homeopathic medicines provide better alternatives. Kas pasidaro smegenims, kad pasiskiepyjus būtinai numeti bajeriuką AJAJAI, AŠ SUČIPUOTAS, KAIP GERAI GAUDO 5G. The book covers the development story of the Oxford vaccine, the previous vaccine science that their work was built upon (including its failings, and how these have been learnt from), as well as very effectively dispelling misinformation. It also lays out how the technology and processes that this devastating global pandemic has led to could help save many lives in future for a whole myriad of other diseases (such as HIV), some of which don’t even exist yet. I think there can be a lot of comfort found in that something positive can come from such a dark and deeply sad time where so many lives have tragically been lost.

In Anti-Vaxxers, Jonathan Berman reveals the strategies, influence, and psychology of a movement that the World Health Organization has called one of the top ten threats to global health. An urgent and engaging read.”