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COVID-19 and The Vaccine: A Shot of Hope and A Return to Normal?

Science &
Technology

Many policymakers now believe we are on track for a mass rollout of multiple vaccines in 2021. But how realistic is this? And what questions still need to be answered?

“Today is a great day for science and humanity,”
– Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer November 9 2020

The world had been waiting for the news and on November 9 it finally came: a vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech had proved to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in clinical trials. And then just a week later another pharmaceutical company, Moderna, announced the results of its own clinical trials. Moderna’s vaccine showed a remarkable 95% efficacy in preventing Covid-19. With further promising results from the Oxford/AstraZenica vaccine showing between 70 – 90% protection, many policymakers now believe we are on track for a mass rollout of multiple vaccines in 2021 and a chance of normality resuming within months. But how realistic is this? And what questions still need to be answered?

Many experts are warning that, while the news about vaccines is an encouraging episode in the pandemic story, it is by no means the end of it. We have many ethical and logistical challenges ahead of us in the coming months. The chief scientist behind the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Uğur Şahin, has said we are unlikely to see any signs of the pandemic receding before the summer of 2021. In the meantime, a lot of questions remain unanswered: Should we continue with lockdowns until the summer or beyond? Who should be vaccinated first? The elderly so we can save lives and reduce the burden on healthcare providers? Or – as some are suggesting – the young, so we can kickstart the economy? And more broadly, is it fair that pharmaceutical companies should make vast profits from a vaccine?

To answer these questions, Sarah Gilbert, Project Leader for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, and Tim Spector, epidemiologist and founder of the ZOE Covid symptom tracking app, joined us in December 2020. The event was hosted by Anjana Ahuja, leading science contributor for the Financial Times.

Event Name

COVID-19 and The Vaccine: A Shot of Hope and A Return to Normal?

Intelligence Squared+
Online Event
WATCH ON DEMAND
Speakers for the motion

  • Sarah Gilbert

    Project Leader of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Vaccine against Covid-19

  • Tim Spector

    Professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London and leading expert on food and nutrition

  • Richard Horton

    Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet and author of The COVID-19 Catastrophe: What's Gone Wrong and How to Stop It Happening Again

Chair

  • Anjana Ahuja

    Science journalist

Speakers

Speakers

Sarah Gilbert

Project Leader of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Vaccine against Covid-19

Professor of Vaccinology in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. She is the Oxford Project Leader for ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, a promising vaccine against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. She works on vaccines for many different emerging pathogens, including influenza, Nipah, MERS, Lassa, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, and SARS-CoV-2. Working with colleagues in the Jenner Institute research labs, the Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility and Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, she has taken novel vaccines from design to clinical development, with a particular focus on the rapid transfer of vaccines into manufacturing and in human trials.

Tim Spector

Professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London and leading expert on food and nutrition

Professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London and honorary consultant physician at Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals. He is a multi-award-winning expert in personalised medicine and the gut microbiome, and the author of five books, including the bestsellers Spoon-Fed and The Diet Myth. He appears regularly on TV, radio and podcasts around the world, and is one of the top 100 most cited scientists in the world. He is co-founder of the personalised nutrition company ZOE and leads the world's biggest citizen science health project, the ZOE Health study. He was awarded an OBE in 2020 for his work fighting Covid-19. His latest book is Food For Life: The New Science of Eating Well.   

Richard Horton

Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet and author of The COVID-19 Catastrophe: What's Gone Wrong and How to Stop It Happening Again

Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, the world renowned peer-review medical journal. He is the author of The COVID-19 Catastrophe: What's Gone Wrong and How to Stop It Happening Again. He is a vocal critic of the UK government response to Covid-19. In 2019 he was awarded the WHO Director-General’s Health Leaders Award for outstanding leadership in global health and the Roux Prize in recognition of innovation in the application of global health evidence. He previously chaired the Expert Group for the High Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, convened by then President Hollande of France and then President Jacob Zuma of South Africa.
Chair

Anjana Ahuja

Science journalist

Award-winning science writer at the FT where she has written extensively on the pandemic since February 2020. She was previously a feature writer and columnist at The Times and contributes to The New Statesman, BBC Newsnight and Prospect. She is co-author of Selected, a book about the evolution of human leadership.

 

Speakers are subject to change.