Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Reportage & collected journalism

THE FIRST SHOTS

Brendan Borrell

The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine

This could be the defining story of our times. The planet is in the throes of the greatest pandemic we have ever seen, and there is one thing that could put a stop to it, a vaccine that can be widely disseminated. But who will be the first to develop it? And how much money do they stand to make?

In the tradition of Michael Lewis and Richard Preston, Brendan Borrell will chronicles this global story, illuminating the science behind the various vaccine technologies, bringing it alive through the players at the center of the race, navigating the complicated intersection between commerce and a cure, and spinning a page-turning narrative as we march forward to a solution. So many of the competitive vaccine books concentrate on how governments got this pandemic wrong. THE FIRST SHOTS tells the story of how heroic scientists got it right.

Brendan's intense, deeply sourced reporting covers the entire arc of the pandemic and race to the vaccine - from January 2020 to May 2021. A perfect end point.

Brendan Borrell is an award-winning journalist who has written deeply reported investigative pieces for The Atlantic, the New York Times, Wired, Smithsonian, and National Geographic. He is also a correspondent for Outside Magazine. He will be embedded in several key labs and agencies involved in the story and will draw on his years of covering science, health and business to tell the one coronavirus story we will all want - and need - to read.

Brendan is a real talent, a writer with a huge future, and tells this story with the kind of color and verve that will engage readers for years to come.

Available products
Book Published 2021-10-26 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Comments

Korea: SoWooJoo

In The First Shots, Brendan Borrell delivers a riveting, sometimes startling, sometimes chilling page-turner of a book. But this tale of the Covid-19 pandemic and the race to find vaccines to stop it is more than a good read. It's also a remarkable illumination of the politics, the personalities, and the human drama underlying a desperate scientific fight against an invisible enemy.

For decades we'll be studying where our country succeeded and how it faltered in its fight against the worst pandemic in 100 years. In his vivid account of the tumultuous journey toward developing a coronavirus vaccine, Brendan Borrell offers immediate and hugely valuable insights. Beyond the chaotic politics, clashing egos and erratic logistics were unprecedented scientific achievements. Those audacious efforts, and the people behind them, come fully to life in Borrell's absorbing narrative.

...a page-turning introduction to a key part of the pandemic. Read more...

HBO is adapting THE FIRST SHOTS as a limited series with superstar director and producer Adam McKay (whose credits include Vice and The Big Short).

Just like the covid vaccine that went into your arm and mine, this book is an astonishingly powerful synthesis of intelligence, exertion, and speed. Brendan Borrell has written a compelling, up-to-the-minute chronicle of a pivotal moment in the history of science. You will learn something new on every page of The First Shots.