Tag Archives: Moderna

Journalism, Medicine, Technology

Bill Gates on the pandemic

IN 2015, the American technologist and philanthropist Bill Gates warned that humanity wasn’t ready for a pandemic. Seven years on, as the world emerges (hopefully) from a pandemic for which it wasn’t ready, he thinks we have it within our power to make sure this one was the last. There will be more disease outbreaks, but we now possess the tools and the knowledge to prevent them from becoming global catastrophes…

This article first appeared in the New Statesman on 4 May 2022. To continue reading, click here:

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2022/05/bill-gates-on-the-pandemic-a-misplaced-faith-in-innovation

Journalism, Medicine

The dirty vaccine race

TO begin with, it felt like a sleek performance from a well-honed relay team. On 11 January, only 10 days after reporting a new respiratory disease, the Chinese published the genome sequence of the virus that causes it. Researchers around the world set to work building vaccines against Covid-19, as the disease became known, and the first candidate entered human trials on 16 March; it was joined, as the months passed, by dozens of others…

This article first appeared inThe Observer on 30 August 2020. To continue reading, click here.

Journalism, Medicine

When will we have a Covid-19 vaccine?

WHEN will we have a Covid-19 vaccine? Public-facing scientists such as the UK’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, and his US counterpart, Anthony Fauci, keep repeating that it won’t be before 12 to 18 months. But other voices – including some of those in the race to create a vaccine themselves – have suggested that it could be as early as June. Who is right…?

This story first appeared in The Observer on 12 April 2020. To continue reading, click here.

Genetics, Journalism, Medicine

When will a coronavirus vaccine be ready?

EVEN at their most effective – and draconian – containment strategies have only slowed the spread of the respiratory disease Covid-19. With the World Health Organization finally declaring a pandemic, all eyes have turned to the prospect of a vaccine, because only a vaccine can prevent people from getting sick…

This article first appeared in The Observer on 15 March 2020. To continue reading, click here.