Book review: Extraordinary story of ordinary people saving lives in a pandemic in Vaxxers
Professor of Vaccinology at the Jenner Institute within the University of Oxford, Sarah Gilbert was, and remains, the hero of the pandemic. Picture: PA
DURING the lockdown days of 2020 I invited Sarah Gilbert to my television screen on a regular basis. Looking exhausted but speaking in calm neutral tones she explained to a beleaguered world how she and her fellows were developing a vaccine which would soon to be ready to rollout. The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine needed to go from proven efficacy in trials to actual effectiveness in the population. For me Gilbert was, and remains, the hero of the pandemic.
As Professor of Vaccinology at the Jenner Institute within the University of Oxford Gilbert was well placed to lead the race to protect people from unfriendly viruses. She had been active in fighting Ebola in African countries and had learnt lessons from that. What became known as Covid-19 was less of a death threat to patients than Ebola which kills 50% of those it infects. But it was more difficult to contain with its asymptomatic, and thus unidentified, victims.
