- 17 minutes ago
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease.
疫苗是一种有助于人体免疫系统识别并对抗疾病的医疗手段；几个世纪以来，人类一直在寻求保护彼此免受致命疾病侵害的方法。从早期的试验与冒险尝试，到史无前例的全球疫情期间疫苗的大规模推广，免疫接种拥有悠久的历史。
疫苗是一种有助于人体免疫系统识别并对抗疾病的医疗手段；几个世纪以来，人类一直在寻求保护彼此免受致命疾病侵害的方法。从早期的试验与冒险尝试，到史无前例的全球疫情期间疫苗的大规模推广，免疫接种拥有悠久的历史。
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TVTranscript
00:00:08A virus that has killed nine people has the potential to spread further.
00:00:13In different corners of the globe, a small band of scientists had for years been preparing for this moment.
00:00:20We knew it was going to happen, it was just a question of when.
00:00:23A virus can get from one corner of the world all the way to the other side of the world.
00:00:28In less than 24 hours.
00:00:30Tasked with the seemingly impossible.
00:00:33What's happening? Got all the bloods eh?
00:00:36Suddenly the fate of the world was in their hands.
00:00:40Fears are growing that it won't be possible to stop the global spread of coronavirus.
00:00:45COVID-19 is our absolute worst nightmare.
00:00:50Right now there's one thing all 8 billion of us on Earth wish for.
00:00:54A vaccine for COVID-19.
00:00:57Vaccines have saved more lives than just about any other public health intervention in history.
00:01:04Vaccines are absolutely mission critical in taking care of the pandemic.
00:01:08Over the past year we've been on five continents.
00:01:12Behind the scenes following pioneering scientists through every step.
00:01:17From vaccine design.
00:01:19I was right.
00:01:21Three, three and a half.
00:01:24Through make or break clinical trials.
00:01:27The workload and just the intensity of it.
00:01:31There's just so much pressure to get everything right.
00:01:35All the way to mass manufacturing.
00:01:39We currently have 200 freezers on site.
00:01:42Another 60 showing up today.
00:01:44My team spent about a half a billion dollars before we had any idea if the product was going to
00:01:48be successful.
00:01:49That's crazy.
00:01:50This is the story of how these vaccine scientists harness cutting edge technology never before used on this scale.
00:02:00To achieve in months what typically takes 10 to 15 years.
00:02:05You are so focused on what you have to do.
00:02:10You do not think about anything but how to get it done.
00:02:15A virus that knows no borders is taking a worldwide effort to confront it.
00:02:21There have been sacrifices along the way.
00:02:24The most important goal is to, through the vaccine,
00:02:26to kill this virus from the planet.
00:02:30These scientists took on one of the biggest challenges in the history of modern medicine.
00:02:37There was never any guarantee that we were going to be successful with this.
00:02:40But we had to try.
00:02:42To save all of us.
00:02:46It's about protecting the entire world.
00:03:01On December the 30th, 2019, George Gao, one of the world's leading experts in infectious diseases,
00:03:09first got wind of something that would soon affect all of us.
00:03:13I was in the early morning, maybe 11am.
00:03:18I saw this in the early morning.
00:03:21I saw this in Wuhan area, which is a disease.
00:03:26I feel very敏感 and very important.
00:03:32Gao's team in Beijing immediately saw samples from patients in Wuhan.
00:03:38Thanks to the latest rapid genetic sequencing techniques,
00:03:42within days they identified what was causing the mystery illness.
00:03:47Until 7th, we basically confirmed that it is a COVID-19.
00:03:51We know that this is a new disease.
00:03:54It has caused a new disease.
00:03:56A new deadly virus had never been identified this quickly before.
00:04:07The genetic sequence for the new coronavirus sounded the starting gun for vaccine scientists worldwide,
00:04:15already prepared for this moment.
00:04:19While Gao himself raced into vaccine development in China,
00:04:24other teams used completely different ways of turning the virus into a vaccine.
00:04:33When the sequence of the virus came out on January 10th,
00:04:37we were certainly prepared and had determined exactly how we would make the vaccine,
00:04:44in order to move very quickly.
00:04:58We saw the sequence.
00:04:59We thought, yes, let's make a vaccine.
00:05:01We'll pretend this is the real thing.
00:05:03We'll get a great publication out and, you know,
00:05:06we can pretend like we've saved the world.
00:05:09It really went quickly from practice to, oh shit, this is the real thing.
00:05:16My brother was living in China.
00:05:18I was aware of this virus that was spreading.
00:05:21My phone pinged late.
00:05:23It was a late Friday night, early Saturday morning, that I got the sequence.
00:05:28It's six o'clock on Saturday the 11th of January with the latest BBC news.
00:05:32Got up the next morning and just sat in my bedroom in front of my computer,
00:05:37basically huddled over it in my PJs, designing the vaccine.
00:05:41Dr. Theresa, or Tess Lam, works at Oxford University,
00:05:46in one of the world's preeminent centers for vaccine development,
00:05:51the Jenner Institute.
00:05:53It's named after Edward Jenner, who pioneered the world's first vaccine over 200 years ago.
00:06:02Vaccines have worked the same way ever since.
00:06:04The vaccines trick your body into thinking you have an infection.
00:06:10So you want a vaccine somewhat to mimic, to copy a natural infection.
00:06:18Understanding what's causing the infection is essential for vaccine design.
00:06:24Each coronavirus particle is filled with genetic instructions, called RNA,
00:06:30and covered in crown-like spikes made of protein.
00:06:37Inhale one of these viruses, and the spikes latch onto cells in our airways.
00:06:43The spikes then change shape, fusing the virus and the cell together.
00:06:50At this point, the invading virus can replicate, fast.
00:06:59The spike on these viruses is critical for vaccine scientists,
00:07:05because its unique shape is key to the body's immune response.
00:07:11Typically, when we're making an immune response, we'll want antibodies.
00:07:16And the types of antibodies you want are known as neutralizing antibodies.
00:07:21Antibodies are like the defensive part of your immune system.
00:07:25Neutralizing antibodies block the coronavirus to prevent it from invading cells.
00:07:31These antibodies are shaped so they bind tightly to the spike protein.
00:07:38When people are infected, their blood becomes filled with these antibodies to fight off the virus,
00:07:44which also helps protect them from being infected again.
00:07:49They're almost like a trained army.
00:07:52So when they see a real virus, they're ready to spring, they're ready to fight,
00:07:57they're ready to clear a real infection.
00:08:01In January 2020, there were four main types of vaccine in development.
00:08:07Oxford's is what's known as a viral vector,
00:08:10a vaccine they'd already made in preparation for just this kind of new threat.
00:08:16All they needed was the genetic sequence from China.
00:08:21What our vaccine is, it's a common cold virus.
00:08:24We've crippled it, so we've knocked the legs off it.
00:08:27It doesn't replicate.
00:08:28And what we've done is we've then taken a small, tiny part of the new coronavirus,
00:08:35and we've put that into a common cold virus.
00:08:39That tiny part is the coronavirus spike gene,
00:08:44which the Oxford vaccine seeks to smuggle into the body inside a common cold virus.
00:08:51It is this genetic code that enables our cells to make the spike protein,
00:08:58which the body then recognises as foreign, triggering an antibody response.
00:09:05What your body sees is this small part of the new coronavirus
00:09:10and mounts a strong immune response to it.
00:09:13OK, can you bring that in as well?
00:09:15After design, the vaccine must be tested to ensure it's safe and effective,
00:09:21first in animals and then in three phases of human trials.
00:09:26These start small but eventually involve tens of thousands of people.
00:09:32For a normal vaccine programme, you'll typically have me say that it takes up to ten years.
00:09:38We didn't have that time.
00:09:40So while we were designing the vaccine,
00:09:43we were already talking to people about doing the preclinical work
00:09:47and we were already planning for phase one.
00:09:51We're working with people in Montana and also in Australia.
00:09:55So a lot of late nights, a lot of early mornings, a bit of insomnia and a lot of hard
00:10:01work.
00:10:02It wasn't really a choice. This is what I do. I have to do it.
00:10:09In Brisbane, Australia, a molecular virologist was also quick off the mark.
00:10:16Hey, Millie, will you feed the chooks, please, sweetheart?
00:10:22She's all grown up. She can do it herself.
00:10:24Dr. Keith Chappell of the University of Queensland
00:10:27was just one year into a new vaccine research project when COVID-19 struck.
00:10:36While Oxford's vaccine is a viral vector containing the spike gene,
00:10:41Keith's vaccine is composed of the spike protein itself.
00:10:47Protein vaccines are the vaccine that's tried and true.
00:10:52Hep B vaccine is protein. Some are flu vaccine.
00:10:57So proteins are the vaccines that have been shown to work.
00:11:04It really is the most simple type of vaccine.
00:11:08It's just a small component of the virus
00:11:10and it's combined with a chemical called an adjuvant,
00:11:14which says to your body, look out.
00:11:16This is what is potentially a nasty pathogen.
00:11:21We can make an immune response to that.
00:11:25Using the coronavirus spike protein as a vaccine
00:11:29presents Keith's team with a key challenge.
00:11:33The spike protein is highly flexible.
00:11:37It wants to fall apart.
00:11:39It wants to flip into other structures.
00:11:41What we've got is the molecular clamp.
00:11:43It's like a bulldog clip that holds it together
00:11:45and it allows it to stay 100% in that structure
00:11:50that's present on the surface of the virus.
00:11:52The shape of the coronavirus spike protein
00:11:56before the virus meets our cells
00:11:58is what triggers the most protective antibody response.
00:12:03So Keith must make the spike protein in the lab,
00:12:06locking it into exactly the same shape
00:12:09by adding another protein that acts a bit like a clamp.
00:12:13And that protein is a tiny fragment of HIV.
00:12:20The reason we chose this protein
00:12:22is because it's so well understood.
00:12:24It's a highly stable structure.
00:12:26There is absolutely no risk from this type of vaccine.
00:12:29There's nothing that makes HIV replicate.
00:12:32There is only one small fragment of a protein
00:12:37that is also present in HIV.
00:12:39And then we hit go and it does it all for me.
00:12:43It makes all those cool woo sounds.
00:12:45That's your robot.
00:12:47Protein vaccines are a well-established technology,
00:12:50so even a unique vaccine design like Keith's
00:12:53can be cheaply and easily manufactured around the world.
00:12:58Potentially vital for reaching developing countries.
00:13:02We've got a key core team,
00:13:04which is Julia, Salam, Danushka,
00:13:07specifically employed for vaccine development.
00:13:12They have, you know, the real focus and drive
00:13:15to, you know, put in the hours and work together.
00:13:20My father-in-law passed on because of the pandemic.
00:13:23So for me and my family, it will be a good news
00:13:27to know that the vaccine that you kill is developing
00:13:30proves to be successful.
00:13:33Coming from Africa, I'm very much aware of infectious disease
00:13:36that affects so many people.
00:13:39So trying to develop vaccines has always been a passion for me.
00:13:42And the loss of this loved one even made it more important.
00:13:47Get this colony PCR on and then have to start splitting the CHO cells.
00:13:52When you're working on this thing, you see the amount of effort
00:13:55that the team is putting in.
00:13:57You want to succeed.
00:13:59You want to be the ones that get vaccine out there.
00:14:04Making the only Australian vaccine put Keith in the spotlight.
00:14:08Yeah, I'm a star.
00:14:11Thanks, mate.
00:14:13Yeah, our status around the university has kind of skyrocketed
00:14:17with all the notoriety and everything.
00:14:21So, yeah, it's a bit interesting to go from just being
00:14:25one of the new academics, I guess, to, you know,
00:14:29right in the limelight.
00:14:30Probably the most important project in the university.
00:14:35You're a superstar now, aren't you?
00:14:37That's me.
00:14:38Canvas following you.
00:14:47Coronavirus is now spreading at a faster rate around the world
00:14:51than in China, says the World Health Organization.
00:14:53almost 40 countries are affected.
00:15:01Since this virus is in the world,
00:15:05I have a lot of pressure.
00:15:07This pressure is not a normal pressure.
00:15:09It's not a normal pressure.
00:15:15It's not a normal pressure.
00:15:17It's not a normal pressure.
00:15:20It's not a normal pressure.
00:15:20George Gao is China's chief scientist in charge of tackling COVID-19.
00:15:25A veteran of fighting bird flu and SARS,
00:15:29he favoured a traditional approach to vaccine development.
00:15:33Every country and companies,
00:15:36all parties choose the end-of-the-visions.
00:15:38They are all linked to the different countries and companies.
00:15:43The technology has been found.
00:15:43Hello, hello.
00:15:45Hello, hello.
00:15:46Hello, hello.
00:15:47Hi, hello.
00:15:48In China,
00:15:49as the virus first was found in Wuhan,
00:15:52there is a virus in China.
00:15:53China has a virus in our hands.
00:15:56The virus is now on the right road.
00:15:57The virus is now on the right side.
00:15:57This virus is called on the right-of-the-visions.
00:16:01To create an inactivated virus vaccine, the Chinese team take the coronavirus and treat
00:16:08it with a chemical to damage its genome and stop it replicating, while leaving the surface
00:16:14structures of the virus, including the spike, intact.
00:16:19Injecting this inactivated virus into the body should trigger a strong antibody response.
00:16:25Not just antibodies against the spike, but also other antibodies against the rest of
00:16:32the virus.
00:16:33If it works, this should offer good protection from future infection.
00:16:41In a high-level biosafety facility, Gao's team first had to grow a large quantity of the
00:16:47deadly virus.
00:17:04George Gao's chief cook is Professor Wu Guizhen, responsible for biosafety at Chinese CDC.
00:17:13It was Wu's task to grow the virus samples that would become the seed stock for China's
00:17:18inactivated coronavirus vaccines.
00:17:22Wu had to takeoff that brand new virus using a virus RNA, botholare with viruses and
00:17:39DDs.
00:17:41We still have to choose how to choose.
00:17:43We must have to choose this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this,
00:17:48this, this, this, this, this.
00:17:49Wu had to choose a stock of coronavirus that most closely matched the dominant strain infecting people in early 2020,
00:17:58because the closer the match, the better the immune protection.
00:18:04While inactivated vaccines like China's have been used for decades,
00:18:09an entirely new method was chosen by a big pharma giant in America.
00:18:17Pfizer's vast research and development center is in Pearl River, New York.
00:18:24Over the years, we have a huge portfolio of vaccine addressing all kinds of infectious diseases.
00:18:30I mean, we are talking hundreds and hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines that are being produced every year.
00:18:36All right, Jess, I didn't take my iPhone. I have no idea what I have to do.
00:18:44Dr. Katherine Janssen leads a team of 650 people as Pfizer's head of vaccine research and development.
00:18:53Smuggled out of East Germany at just two years old, her family started life in the West with just the
00:18:59clothes on their backs.
00:19:02I had whooping cough as a child. And, you know, you get a medication that stops your cough. That is
00:19:12impressive.
00:19:13And so I thought that would be wonderful to work in a field where you could develop, you know, those
00:19:21little pills that would make people feel better.
00:19:27Catherine teamed up with a long-time collaborator from a small German biotech company, Dr. Uger Zahin.
00:19:55I said immediately, yes, we'd better get going on this. So we started the work together before the official contracts
00:20:03were signed.
00:20:05BioNTech and Pfizer's vaccine takes a groundbreaking new approach, never before licensed for use in humans, called messenger or mRNA.
00:20:18Instead of smuggling the spike gene into the body inside another virus like Oxford's viral vector.
00:20:27Pfizer first make a copy of the spike gene in the lab, made from a type of genetic code called
00:20:33mRNA.
00:20:35And then deliver this into the body in a protective bubble of fat or lipid. Once inside a cell, the
00:20:44bubble breaks down and the coronavirus spike is built. Again triggering those all important antibodies.
00:20:54D.h. it's an elegant process. Normalerweise muss man für einen Impfstoff erst mal ein Spike-Protein erst mal herstellen,
00:21:01dafür braucht man Zellkultur.
00:21:03Das vergehen Monate Zeit. mRNA macht was ganz Neues.
00:21:07mRNA sagt ich, wir machen das Protein gar nicht jetzt in der Zelle draußen,
00:21:11sondern wir lassen den Menschen, der die mRNA bekommen hat, das Protein machen.
00:21:16And the elegant thing about the mRNA is that this genetic information is like an e-mail.
00:21:22It gives instructions, but it leaves itself.
00:21:49The only cons in people's mind is that there has never been a vaccine produced on the mRNA platform.
00:21:56So it was, I guess, a fear of the unknown.
00:22:01Pfizer, one of the largest companies in the world, tested not one but four different versions of BioNTech's mRNA vaccine.
00:22:12This huge infrastructure that was tested and proven was at our fingertips with really unlimited resources.
00:22:22So we didn't have to worry about money.
00:22:25We didn't have to worry about, you know, is this approach a little cheaper than that approach?
00:22:30All of those considerations were gone.
00:22:37Another mRNA vaccine was also being developed at America's National Institutes of Health.
00:22:45And in early 2020, as the virus spread, the U.S. top biomedical research center was already several steps ahead.
00:22:55I didn't know if we could beat it or not, but we thought we had a way forward because of
00:23:01our experience of other respiratory viruses.
00:23:03Dr. Barney Graham is deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the NIH.
00:23:10For decades, he's developed new vaccines for emerging diseases, most recently against another coronavirus called MERS.
00:23:19By the end of 2019, we had already made a MERS coronavirus spike protein that was stabilized, delivered by mRNA
00:23:28and protected mice.
00:23:30We felt like we had a way of doing this. And so we wanted to go just as fast as
00:23:37we could.
00:23:40Using the method they'd honed with MERS, within weeks, Barney's team had an mRNA vaccine against the new coronavirus.
00:23:48First testing it on mice, then on monkeys, to see if it induced a strong antibody response.
00:23:57This work was led by NIH lead on coronavirus vaccines, 34-year-old Dr. Kiz Mekia, or Kizzie, Corbett.
00:24:07We did this so fast because we did everything for the last six or seven years very slow.
00:24:15Why wouldn't you use all of that knowledge that you prepared to really deploy a vaccine as quickly as possible
00:24:23in this moment?
00:24:23Hi!
00:24:25Kizzie first came to NIH 15 years ago as a teenage summer intern in Barney's lab, encouraged by family to
00:24:33follow her passion for science.
00:24:35Kizzie, you did such a wonderful job. I just love to hear your speech.
00:24:41Thank you!
00:24:42Ironically enough, I was interested in coronaviruses because most other people were not. You want to build a niche. And
00:24:50so you want to tap into some unchartered territory. And the pandemic came. And all of that changed, for sure.
00:25:00The World Health Organization is expressing new concerns about the spread of the virus as more cases begin to pop
00:25:07up outside of China.
00:25:09The president and the coronavirus task force meeting with the vaccine makers. The president trying to get a sense of
00:25:14timelines.
00:25:15In early March, the NIH vaccine was already just days away from the first human trials.
00:25:22It's because of the new technologies that have been developed here.
00:25:26The new vaccine would be manufactured by NIH's pharmaceutical partner.
00:25:32We had this beautiful, productive collaboration with this biotech company, Moderna, and they knew how to make vaccine really fast.
00:25:41And just 66 days after George Gao sent out the virus sequence, the NIH Moderna vaccine became the very first
00:25:50shot against COVID-19 to be trialed in humans.
00:25:58In Seattle, science writer Ian Hayden was one of 120 volunteers for this first phase one human trial.
00:26:07While a glimmer of hope in the fight against the coronavirus with the first US trial of a vaccine now
00:26:13underway.
00:26:14It is Wednesday morning and I'm on my way to receive my first injection.
00:26:18...company Moderna are behind the record speed clinical trial.
00:26:22Phase one clinical trials answer the simple question, is this vaccine safe for a human being?
00:26:29Is it going to hurt?
00:26:31Have you had flu shots before?
00:26:33Yeah.
00:26:34It shouldn't be any worse than that.
00:26:35The secondary point of them is to oftentimes define a dose that is suitable and safe, but also elicits really
00:26:46good immune responses.
00:26:48Ian received the highest dose being tested.
00:26:51And then a band-aid's going to go on that.
00:26:54That was not bad.
00:26:55Good.
00:26:57So a little over 24 hours ago I got my first injection and I'm feeling fine.
00:27:03I have no symptoms other than an arm that's getting pretty sore.
00:27:08Volunteers are monitored closely as vaccines must reach nothing less than the highest standards of safety.
00:27:16If you're planning to immunize 7 billion people on earth who are otherwise healthy, you need to make sure what
00:27:23you're giving them is not going to cause any long-term problems.
00:27:2828 days after his first vaccination, Ian returned for a booster.
00:27:34By 10 in the evening, I started getting chills all of a sudden. I was shivering a little bit, but
00:27:40I ended up falling asleep.
00:27:42I woke up though in the middle of the night with a pretty high fever and nauseous and with a
00:27:47pretty bad headache.
00:27:49Basically all the stuff that I had been told to look out for.
00:27:52We got to urgent care at about 5 in the morning and the lead doctor on the vaccine study was
00:27:58already there waiting for us.
00:28:01I spent a lot of time just alone on the bed, unsure of what was happening to me.
00:28:06It was scary. It was scary not knowing.
00:28:08Some side effects can indicate that your immune system is really kicking in.
00:28:14But we have to carefully monitor them to make sure that the adverse reactions are not worse than the disease
00:28:21you're trying to protect against.
00:28:23And that's why we start small and we start slow and we look at the safety profiles.
00:28:29Ian's symptoms were the most extreme of any volunteer in Moderna's phase one trial.
00:28:34But two days later, he was fully recovered.
00:28:40Having worked out the right vaccine dose, much lower than Ian's, the scientists could move towards phase two and three
00:28:48trials, testing it on hundreds and then thousands of people.
00:28:58But by the time Oxford, Pfizer and the Chinese CDC also had phase one human trials underway, cases were surging
00:29:07exponentially.
00:29:09A virus that knows no borders is taking a worldwide effort to confront it.
00:29:16It was absolutely terrifying seeing graves being dug.
00:29:21You know, we needed to do all we could.
00:29:23And that's, you know, how every single person working on vaccines felt.
00:29:27I can guarantee that.
00:29:28I did look at the dashboards in the early days, but as it became apparent how this was going, I
00:29:36didn't do a daily check.
00:29:38Because that can incapacitate you, that can slow you down, that can put too much of a burden on you.
00:29:44We knew what we had to do and we just had to get on with it.
00:29:50With hopes pinned on vaccines, by the end of May, there were over 120 teams in the race.
00:29:58Many now with massive government support, totaling billions of dollars, alongside new partnerships with Big Pharma.
00:30:08Queensland got the backing of global biotech leader CSL, as other protein vaccines also made progress.
00:30:18Oxford advanced with partner AstraZeneca on their viral vector, while other vector vaccines gained ground in America and Russia.
00:30:29The Chinese CDC paired with pharmaceutical companies Sinopharm and Sinovac to scale up production.
00:30:38And the mRNA vaccines surged ahead.
00:30:44Usually, mass manufacturing would never begin until all three phases of vaccine testing are complete.
00:30:51And a vaccine is known to be safe and effective.
00:30:55But by mid-2020, factories around the world were already preparing to churn out doses on an unprecedented scale.
00:31:05There are seven plus billion people in the world, and there is going to be a race to vaccinate everybody.
00:31:11We're going to need billions of doses.
00:31:13We really need more than one manufacturer to be successful here because we have a big task immunizing the entire
00:31:19world.
00:31:22Kalamazoo, Michigan is home to Pfizer's largest manufacturing site.
00:31:31Here, Pat McEvoy directs COVID vaccine production.
00:31:36I've been involved in a lot of projects, but nothing to this scale.
00:31:40It's unprecedented.
00:31:42This hallway is a little over a quarter of a mile long.
00:31:45This facility had to gear up to manufacture billions of doses of a vaccine they'd never made before.
00:31:54The operation, here and across Pfizer's entire manufacturing and distribution network, is coordinated from home by Pat's boss, Mike McDermott.
00:32:05Well, it's the team for sure. Thank you very much, Mike.
00:32:07And they're both looking to run through the weekend, I guess.
00:32:10Oh yeah, 24-7.
00:32:12Manufacturing will typically take three to five years to start from scratch and build the facilities and get them approved
00:32:17by the agencies around the world.
00:32:19So the notion of actually designing, building, and have it running and shipping in nine months seem ridiculous to me.
00:32:25Pfizer purchased $300 million worth of raw materials to be ready to make any of the four mRNA vaccines being
00:32:34tested.
00:32:37Though they had no idea if any would work, they also had to rapidly expand production capacity.
00:32:44You're looking into our newest aseptic line. It is a restricted access barrier line. It's 100% dedicated to the
00:32:53COVID vaccine.
00:32:55The company gave us all the resources we need. So it was a blank check.
00:33:00Anything we could imagine, anything that we could think of, we just did. And that gave us a lot of
00:33:04speed.
00:33:05This is the automated visual inspection. So there's 15 cameras that are taking dozens of pictures as the vials come
00:33:15through.
00:33:15And they're looking for any defects.
00:33:19Once their mRNA vaccine is made, filled into sterile vials and checked, the final step is storage.
00:33:28And while inactivated protein and viral vector vaccines are chemically very stable, mRNA vaccines are not.
00:33:37mRNA can break down very quickly unless kept incredibly pure and very cold.
00:33:46As wonderful as the mRNA technology is, it wants to degrade.
00:33:50So what we do is that we freeze that mRNA after it's made at minus 80 and it stabilizes it.
00:33:55It keeps it nice and quiet so it doesn't degrade.
00:34:00Every two weeks, we'll bring in three truckloads, each containing 20 freezers.
00:34:06We currently have 200 freezers on site, another 60 showing up today.
00:34:14This facility was built solely for the storage of millions of doses of their vaccine.
00:34:21These freezers eject off an immense amount of energy.
00:34:24So we put in six air handling units just to remove the heat load coming off of these freezers.
00:34:33With Pfizer's vaccine trials still in their early stages, this was a huge gamble.
00:34:39My team spent about a half a billion dollars before we had any idea if the product was going to
00:34:44be successful.
00:34:45That's more than unusual. That's crazy.
00:34:50With a big pharma partner in place and the Australian government pouring funds into Queensland's protein vaccine,
00:34:59Keith was working round the clock as his phase one trials also moved ahead.
00:35:0930 seconds.
00:35:12Keith, how are you going?
00:35:13Yeah, good thanks. Welcome. Good to see you.
00:35:15Two, one, when you're ready.
00:35:18All right, going in now.
00:35:21120 volunteers were randomly assigned to groups that received either a placebo or a low, medium or high dose shot
00:35:29of the Queensland vaccine.
00:35:31Everyone returning a few weeks later for a booster.
00:35:36Hi, you must be Joel.
00:35:37You know, we really appreciate you being here and go through this for us.
00:35:41We appreciate you inventing it.
00:35:42Well, what we're excited to see is the immune response.
00:35:45So that's why we have you coming back every couple of weeks and taking blood.
00:35:49So we'll be analysing that to see how it works against the virus.
00:35:53Their rapid progress made the Queensland team headline news.
00:35:57Oh, that's great. How are you kidding?
00:35:59Oh, that's awesome.
00:36:04How do you feel about that?
00:36:06That's all right.
00:36:07I liked that movie when I was a kid.
00:36:09Yeah, I liked that movie.
00:36:13While Keith's team juggled plans for mass trials and manufacturing,
00:36:17just weeks into their phase one trial, initial antibody data landed.
00:36:25News just in, the five microgram and the 15 microgram doses are identical in the level of immune response.
00:36:36So that is really good news. Yes.
00:36:39The new results, which are the ones that I've been hanging out for, are the immune response data.
00:36:45Mid-dose and low dose are pretty much comparable.
00:36:50And a single dose, at the lowest dose we use, gives an immune response around the same level as exposure
00:36:56to the virus.
00:36:58That's fantastic news for us. That's what we want to see.
00:37:01So after we give these participants their second dose, likely the vast majority of the participants will have an immune
00:37:09response that is more, that is higher and likely more protective than being exposed to the virus.
00:37:18So it's absolutely phenomenal.
00:37:20It's a lot of work to do, but we're, we're on the way.
00:37:24Ooh, got in.
00:37:28For the team, we are feeling on a high, but you know, I am literally exhausted.
00:37:35I haven't had a good night's sleep for, I don't know when.
00:37:43Vaccine development has never been done at this speed before.
00:37:48What keeps you up at night is, have I made a mistake?
00:37:52What will we miss and get wrong that will cost us a week and will cost lives?
00:37:58You know, it's just constantly running through your head.
00:38:08By late July, the front-runner vaccine teams began publishing results from their Phase 1 human trials
00:38:15in the world's leading science journals.
00:38:20The biotech company Moderna reporting some promising results today.
00:38:24The new data from the company's Phase 1 trial shows the drug appears to be safe and triggers a robust
00:38:30immune response.
00:38:31A team of scientists at Oxford University say the vaccine they're developing appears to be safe and triggers an immune
00:38:37response.
00:38:38Early results published in The Lancet, and so far, so good.
00:38:42That's the first big outcome, you know, is the vaccine safe? Is it immunogenic?
00:38:47And I think at that point, collectively, everybody just went, whew, okay, that's box one ticked.
00:38:53Professor Katie Ewer works alongside fellow immunologist Tess Lamb at the heart of the Oxford lab.
00:39:01And while Tess's focus is antibody data, Katie is the undisputed expert on T-cells.
00:39:09Most vaccines that are available today work by inducing antibodies.
00:39:14But for some diseases, antibodies on their own aren't enough. We need T-cells as well.
00:39:20If antibodies are the immune system's defensive weapon, T-cells are trained to attack.
00:39:27Once exposed to the virus, they become precision hunter killers, ready to stem viral replication by seeking and killing off
00:39:37infected cells.
00:39:41For Katie and her team, the success of the Oxford vaccine could depend on whether it stimulates a strong T
00:39:49-cell response.
00:39:51We have to coordinate ourselves, so we're not all trying to use the same things at the same time.
00:39:56So, that's that for another hour.
00:39:59Each week, they have to analyse hundreds of samples from trial participants.
00:40:04When we take the blood sample from one of our vaccinated volunteers, we do a particular test on it called
00:40:09the Ellispot.
00:40:10The Ellispot test counts the number of T-cells that recognise and attack the virus one by one.
00:40:18So, we're going to mix those T-cells in an Ellispot plate with some small pieces of the protein on
00:40:24the virus.
00:40:25If those T-cells are able to make a response to the virus, we'll be able to see small spots
00:40:30in the bottom of the well.
00:40:32And each one of those spots is the footprint of a T-cell that can recognise the virus and fight
00:40:37it off.
00:40:38After leaving the cells to respond overnight, the results.
00:40:45Go back.
00:40:47Nice and crisp.
00:40:51Yeah, they look good. And these are which group? Eight.
00:40:54These are 18.
00:40:58Just the fact that there are T-cells that can recognise the virus there.
00:41:02You know, it's another little milestone that, yes, everything's working.
00:41:09One of the things about this trial is that we've just processed so many more samples and run so many
00:41:13more Ellispots than we would ever do on any other trial.
00:41:16And when you know everybody's exhausted and everybody's worked loads of weekends and I just hate being that person who
00:41:26has to go in and ask everybody again to just give a bit more and try a bit harder and
00:41:31go a bit further when everybody has already done so much and is already so exhausted.
00:41:37What would normally take years has been done in three months by scientists at Oxford University.
00:41:44Rarely has a medical trial had so much riding on it for so many people.
00:41:51There's just so much pressure to get everything right.
00:41:53Come on.
00:41:55When you're there all day, it's really nice to have that separation and get a bit of daylight.
00:42:03You know, make sure I've sort of got that space to switch modes, if you like, from scientists into family
00:42:09and not be still in my work head.
00:42:15What did you get up to today?
00:42:17It's been hard not seeing the kids as much as I'm used to seeing them and there have been times
00:42:20when they've been like,
00:42:21when are you going to be at home, you know, and that's been quite difficult.
00:42:25What did you and Keir get up to? Xbox?
00:42:27Mm-hmm.
00:42:28Minecraft or...?
00:42:31I haven't seen my parents since the beginning of lockdown because my mum was vulnerable so she was shielding and
00:42:38then she became really unwell.
00:42:41Just around the time that the Lancet paper was coming together and everything was being finalised,
00:42:46she was rushed into hospital and passed away within a day or two, which was just...
00:42:52It's awful at the best of times, but having not seen her for so long
00:42:57and her missing the first big milestone for the trial of the paper coming out,
00:43:04I was really disappointed about that because she would have been really happy to have seen that.
00:43:10So that has been really difficult to cope with on top of the workload and, you know, on top of
00:43:16everything else, but, yeah.
00:43:25In the last 24 hours, Brazil has reached 2 million cases, India, 1 million.
00:43:30And yesterday saw the highest daily total of new infections in the US, over 73,000.
00:43:40It's devastating to see that we can't seem to get this pandemic under control.
00:43:49What keeps me sane is walking in the park in the morning and listening to the birds sing.
00:43:56Walking helps me to get out of the thinking mode of, you know, my work and really clear my mind.
00:44:06At almost exactly the same time as Moderna and Oxford,
00:44:11BioNTech and Pfizer also released positive early human trial results.
00:44:16And Katherine Janssen selected one of their four mRNA vaccine designs to take to the next stage.
00:44:23We saw data on one candidate. They looked good. The candidate that they selected looks even better in terms of
00:44:30the antibody levels and the T cell levels, but that it is more tolerable.
00:44:35I thought it was pretty spectacular to see those data.
00:44:39But then again, you know, I cannot be too related because the biggest, the biggest hurdle now that we have
00:44:48to overcome is to,
00:44:49to demonstrate in very large phase to be a three clinical study.
00:44:57We now have to do the hard part. Does it work?
00:45:00And if it works, how well does it work?
00:45:05Pfizer now moved to phase three trials involving tens of thousands of people.
00:45:11Usually after early trials with just a handful of volunteers, the next step would be phase two with a few
00:45:18hundred.
00:45:19But given the urgency, these larger trials happened all at once.
00:45:26The care for the quality, looking carefully at safety.
00:45:30All of this was what I call normal routine procedure.
00:45:34The process never changed.
00:45:36It's how we compress time and how we did parallel work.
00:45:42That's really what changed.
00:45:45To recruit the huge numbers needed, Pfizer had 150 phase three trial sites across five continents.
00:45:55And New York City was home to one of the largest, with 280 volunteers.
00:45:59We've had a few years.
00:46:02At Mount Sinai Hospital, Judy Aberg was the lead trial doctor.
00:46:07Judy Aberg was the lead trial doctor.
00:46:07It looks like in some parts of New York, it's up to six per cent. I mean, this is just
00:46:12like starting all over again.
00:46:14Do you see it?
00:46:15Yeah, definitely.
00:46:17You know, I will say that all the participants are really hopeful that this will be the vaccine that works.
00:46:24In any phase three trial, the participants are divided into two groups.
00:46:29One group are given a vaccine, the other a placebo.
00:46:34It's a busy morning. We have 11 people coming back for their second vaccine and then we have several people
00:46:42coming in now for their initial consent and then they too would get vaccinated.
00:46:49It takes 45 minutes to thaw and prepare each dose, making sure to hide any clue what's inside.
00:46:57This is vital because the trial is blind.
00:47:01Neither doctors nor volunteers know who is in which group to ensure no risk of bias.
00:47:09Even if they're preparing placebo, they have to take that 45 minutes of time so that we remain blinded to
00:47:18what's going on.
00:47:19Straight all the way down and then to the right.
00:47:23What we don't want is people assuming that they actually got the vaccine and that it works so that they
00:47:29let their guard down because they believe they're protected.
00:47:32We absolutely do not know if this vaccine is protective at this time.
00:47:36So that's very critical that people understand this.
00:47:42The only way to discover if the vaccine really does work is to see how many of the vaccinated volunteers
00:47:49fall sick with COVID-19.
00:47:52Compared to those in the placebo group.
00:47:56And that takes time.
00:47:59We need to register a million more volunteers.
00:48:02The vaccine trial needs Americans of every race, location and medical condition to help in one of the most important
00:48:08endeavors of our lifetime.
00:48:12Recruiting thousands of volunteers on this scale and at this speed had never been attempted before.
00:48:18And in September, Moderna, who began their phase three trial on exactly the same day as Pfizer, revealed they'd hit
00:48:26a problem.
00:48:2740 of 45 participants in the NIH Moderna phase one trial were white.
00:48:33Lack of trust, especially in communities of color, is not without good reason.
00:48:38The shameful Tuskegee experiments occurred within many of our lifetimes.
00:48:43In the 1930s, government doctors conducted experiments on black men, leaving them untreated for syphilis.
00:48:50I was not surprised that there was hesitancy around enrolling in clinical trials from African American people.
00:48:59The hesitancy comes from a history of medical injustice that fueled mistrust that is just undeniable.
00:49:09Naive ideas that are going to contribute to their scientific output.
00:49:13Given Moderna's initial failure to recruit from diverse communities, Kizzy increasingly spent time speaking out.
00:49:21The one thing that's important around vaccine hesitancy, black people actually have never been asked…
00:49:27When trust is stripped from people, rebuilding it is brick by brick, right?
00:49:33You know, you have to really speak to targeted audiences and you have to speak with a voice that people
00:49:40do trust and from a perspective that they understand.
00:49:43It's telling about the way that we think about science.
00:49:45Dr. Graham said to me that for every 1,000 people that we inform well enough that they choose to
00:49:56get vaccinated, that's 10 lives that are saved.
00:50:00And when you're on a webinar with sometimes 10,000 people, the numbers add up and there's a big impact.
00:50:08You either do it or people die.
00:50:14The death rate, crazy. Scared the hell out of me.
00:50:21In Boston, 60-year-old Anthony Shivers was all too aware of the fears that surround the virus and the
00:50:29vaccine.
00:50:30I can't find this sucker.
00:50:33I'm going through my phone, I'm on Facebook and I see people say,
00:50:37Don't take the shot because the shot will kill you.
00:50:44Imagine that.
00:50:45When I hear things like this coming from black people, that really concerns me because this is a disease.
00:50:52This is not a me disease, this is a we disease.
00:50:54This is a disease that affects everybody.
00:50:57You understand what I'm saying?
00:51:00Despite the urgent need for a vaccine, Moderna deliberately slowed down their phase three trial to focus on only recruiting
00:51:08people of color.
00:51:11I had heard that they needed blacks to get involved during the trials and a lot of blacks weren't signing
00:51:17up.
00:51:18In order to solve a problem, you've got to be a part of the solution.
00:51:21So I went to the hospital, I got my first shot.
00:51:25I got a call from my sister telling me she was concerned about me taking a shot.
00:51:29After a month of calling and me feeling good, now she wants to take a shot.
00:51:34Her husband's going to take the shot.
00:51:35I got other friends that's taking the shot, so I'm really happy about it.
00:51:41Look at me, you know, ain't nothing wrong with me.
00:51:48For Kizzy, building trust in vaccines is every bit as important as developing them.
00:51:56I have the ability to talk to an Anthony Fauci or a president, and then also I have explained the
00:52:04vaccine to my cousin who's in prison, who I talk to very often, and he gets it too.
00:52:11I'm happy to be a connection to people, to this extremely confusing system of how vaccines are made, and how
00:52:24are vaccines approved, and how do trials work.
00:52:28Representing, like, my community in that way.
00:52:31My purpose is resonating with my community.
00:52:34It's a big deal to me.
00:52:43At around the same time that Moderna had to pause recruitment, there was breaking news from Oxford.
00:52:51A major trial of a coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca has been temporarily halted worldwide after a
00:52:59volunteer taking part in the UK fell ill and was admitted to hospital.
00:53:04Pausing and stopping and holding rules get triggered all the time.
00:53:07This is normal. This is what happens in clinical trials.
00:53:11The trial was paused because of what's called an adverse event.
00:53:16As soon as a participant's admitted to hospital, we have to look and see, were they hit by a bus?
00:53:21Did they break their leg skiing? Or is there something else that we need to look at more closely?
00:53:25I think people should be reassured that the trial pauses if something like that happens, because if it didn't, that
00:53:31would be more concerning.
00:53:33During mass trials, it's inevitable that some people will be hospitalised, or perhaps even die, for reasons unrelated to the
00:53:42vaccine.
00:53:43But every instance must be investigated.
00:53:48What was unusual was the glare of the world's media.
00:53:54We didn't expect it, well certainly I didn't expect, for this type of normal activity, when you're following up individuals
00:54:03so carefully, to have such a big impact around the world and to make first, yeah, to make headline news.
00:54:11In this single case, a link between the volunteer's illness and the vaccine could not be ruled out.
00:54:18But given the minuscule risk, the Oxford trial was deemed safe to continue.
00:54:29But the pause set Oxford's progress back.
00:54:33And Moderna's delay to recruit more people of colour, meant BioNTech and Pfizer, now seem best placed in the race
00:54:41to get phase three results first.
00:54:44Phase three, so this race is just kicking off in the pivotal trial.
00:54:48Meanwhile, just a bit behind, Queensland's vaccine was preparing to embark on its mass phase three trial.
00:55:00The Australian government made a billion dollar deal to buy 51 million doses of the Queensland vaccine, enough to fully
00:55:09vaccinate the entire population.
00:55:16But then, one night in October, some unexpected news.
00:55:22We thought our vaccine was looking perfect, we've got good efficacy data from animals, we've got manufacture, the safety is
00:55:32looking fantastic, and now we've got a problem that we need to work through.
00:55:39So this is a HIV diagnostic, the participant who's received our vaccine.
00:55:44What we're looking for here is this band that's showing up, very faint there, that would be considered a positive
00:55:51or a false positive.
00:55:53We've got this other version here, from a different company, and this version shows up negative.
00:55:58The problem related to the molecular clamp in Keith's vaccine, built from a tiny fragment of HIV protein.
00:56:08The trial revealed that some participants not only test positive for antibodies against the spike protein, but also for antibodies
00:56:17to HIV.
00:56:20So what we did this week was we purchased a range of diagnostics that we could get our hands on.
00:56:28The volunteers had not been infected with HIV, but false positive HIV results in some diagnostic tests are a big
00:56:38problem.
00:56:41You know, I don't think it's a deal breaker for us. We can find a way around, we just need
00:56:46to work it out.
00:56:55In China, George Gao and Wu Guizhen faced a different kind of problem.
00:57:11The vaccine progress slowed, because there was so little Covid in China.
00:57:18So we've achieved a success in Wuhan and Wuhan.
00:57:21We've achieved a success in Wuhan.
00:57:24Having crushed local outbreaks so effectively, China's greatest threat was now from the virus raging elsewhere.
00:57:32At Beijing Capital International Airport, China's CDC conducting strict screenings for international arrivals.
00:57:39A vaccine was still desperately needed, but they had no way to test it at home.
00:58:01The team pivoted, setting up phase three trials in countries around the world with high Covid levels.
00:58:09And for Wu, there was pressure from the authorities to deliver results as quickly as possible.
00:58:16Are you here?
00:58:16Are you here?
00:58:17I'm here.
00:58:19The fourth question is, as you mentioned earlier,
00:58:22is the impact of the impact of the pandemic or the impact of the pandemic.
00:58:25How are you?
00:58:26If you think you're right, Mr. Li,毯 I have been there.
00:58:30I'm sure that you said that you had to focus on the disease,
00:58:33you will be there for this.
00:58:35What advice are you doing?
00:58:35The next couple is specifically for the implementation.
00:58:39In the next couple of days, the main steps are the stage.
00:58:42The more rapid steps are the stage.
00:58:42Yeah, sure.
00:58:43But it's an easy time.
00:58:44It's feasible, right?
00:58:45Yes, it's scientific.
00:58:47Yes, please, worry.
00:58:49We will go to the scientific process.
00:58:50Okay, let's do that.
00:58:52Thank you, thank you.
00:58:54Bye.
00:58:55Bye.
00:58:58He just wanted to be able to do a quick job.
00:59:01It's been a year for three years.
00:59:04It's been a year for two years.
00:59:05He told me,
00:59:08he said,
00:59:09you know, you're a man.
00:59:11You're a man.
00:59:12You're a man.
00:59:14You're a man.
00:59:14I'm a man.
00:59:17He said,
00:59:18I don't have to worry about it.
00:59:23He said,
00:59:27I'm tired.
00:59:29I'm tired.
00:59:29So you're like,
00:59:30your mind is like a wang.
00:59:32You're a man.
00:59:33But you're like,
00:59:35you're a man.
00:59:36Make sure you're alone.
00:59:37I feel like you're running out.
00:59:44By autumn 2020,
00:59:46In 2020, impatience for a vaccine was growing.
00:59:50We don't yet have a vaccine, unfortunately.
00:59:53You really feel that they must be on the verge of it.
00:59:56Until they succeed, the government will consider tighter restrictions on everyone.
01:00:01On the one hand, you've got all these people saying,
01:00:03oh, we don't want a vaccine that's been rushed.
01:00:06At the same time as everyone's saying, we need a vaccine and we need it tomorrow.
01:00:09You know, that's really challenging when you're just under a massive workload
01:00:13because you don't know what's coming next.
01:00:16As England went into its second national lockdown
01:00:19and the US election approached, international pressure intensified.
01:00:26Moderna is doing very well. Pfizer is doing very well.
01:00:29The vaccine will be delivered very soon.
01:00:31Could even have it during the month of October.
01:00:35Politics should stay out of science.
01:00:39So it is the science at the end of the day that you want to follow.
01:00:42There was a lot of political pressure on the vaccine manufacturers to do things faster.
01:00:49This is a distraction. It's not helpful and you block it out and you just focus on the task.
01:00:59In phase three trials, even the scientists don't know when results will come.
01:01:06Each trial must continue until a predetermined number of volunteers test positive for COVID-19.
01:01:16Independent statisticians monitor those cases in real time.
01:01:21Only when the threshold is reached, do the vaccine scientists discover whether those who caught COVID had the vaccine or
01:01:30the placebo.
01:01:32It's this comparison which reveals efficacy. How well the vaccine works to prevent disease.
01:01:45Now it's what I always say my least favorite game. It's a waiting game.
01:01:59I think that part of my anxiety management has really helped me to see things for what I can control
01:02:09versus what I cannot.
01:02:10So preclinical data, I could control it. So there's so much anxiety around that.
01:02:16But when you give 30,000 people a vaccine or placebo and then allow them to go out into the
01:02:25world, you're really asking the world to give you the answer.
01:02:28There's really nothing you can do at that point.
01:02:31When you're working through problems and you're working hard and you're moving with your team and everybody is pulling in
01:02:37the same direction, you don't think about this.
01:02:40But all of a sudden in this moment of what will the results be, you just feel powerless. It's out
01:02:49of your hands.
01:02:50And now this is a moment of truth. And there's nothing you can do about it.
01:02:57Then, less than 10 months after the race for a vaccine began, an answer.
01:03:07And it was Catherine who received the call from Pfizer's CEO, Albert Bourla.
01:03:13Albert called. And he said, Catherine, I have to tell you, we are allowed to say that your vaccine is
01:03:23over 90% efficacious.
01:03:27This is indeed a momentous day. We've been waiting for these results.
01:03:30The news that a vaccine against coronavirus has proved 90% effective.
01:03:34I was just out of my mind, you know, just laughing and dancing around there.
01:03:41It is a great day for science. It is a great day for humanity.
01:03:45In their final analysis of 170 volunteers who fell sick with COVID-19 during the trial, nearly all, 95%, were
01:03:56in the placebo group.
01:03:58For the first time, a COVID-19 vaccine has been shown to protect against the disease.
01:04:04We're talking about, for the first time ever, people outside of a clinical trial receiving a coronavirus vaccine before Christmas.
01:04:12So it's pretty, pretty incredible pace here.
01:04:14This immense relief that, yes, now we will fight this thing and we will get the pandemic under control.
01:04:24It's just like, it's an amazing feeling. I mean, that's, that's all I can say.
01:04:50Just one week later, there were enough cases of COVID in the 30,000 strong NIH Moderna trial to unblind
01:04:57their data.
01:05:00Well, good morning.
01:05:02Good morning.
01:05:05Um, how's it going?
01:05:07I am calling you because we got results yesterday and they're going to be announced in just a few minutes
01:05:14by press release.
01:05:18Okay.
01:05:22What did they say?
01:05:24Well, uh, there was 95 cases total and 90 of them were in the placebo group.
01:05:33Five were in the vaccinees.
01:05:36Oh, that's.
01:05:38Oh, that's.
01:05:41Oh, that's.
01:05:43So.
01:05:44That's exciting.
01:05:46Looks like it's going to work, at least for a while.
01:05:49And, uh, of the 11 severe cases, all 11 were in the placebo group.
01:05:55So none of the vaccinees had severe disease, which is even better news.
01:06:02That is, that is amazing news.
01:06:05Wow.
01:06:06Um, I don't even know what to say.
01:06:09Like.
01:06:14I'm doing it with pretty news for you.
01:06:17Moderna has just released the first analysis of its coronavirus vaccine and their vaccine is 94.5% effective.
01:06:29We expected it to work to some extent, but to 90, 95% efficacy for what was essentially a first
01:06:39in human vaccine was astounding.
01:06:41The relief that I felt was overwhelming and pleasing to the point that I just had to just sit in
01:06:58it for a little while.
01:07:06With the news this week of a potentially very effective vaccine, countries are racing to prepare for a possible rollout.
01:07:14But Moderna and Pfizer's vaccines alone won't be sufficient for the whole world.
01:07:30The reason why is it used in the United States?
01:07:32Other people have listed in the United States.
01:07:36They were able to see that they are a low-70, low-20.
01:07:38They are just under the conditions for the population of the state.
01:07:44They are not able to use it.
01:07:46If they are not adequate for the population then they are not able to use it.
01:07:50If they are not adequate for the population, they cannot use it.
01:07:58This idea that no one is safe until everyone is safe
01:08:02is the founding principle of COVAX,
01:08:06the global scheme to ensure distribution of vaccines
01:08:09to the most vulnerable worldwide.
01:08:14COVAX invested more than a billion dollars
01:08:17in several of the vaccines in development,
01:08:20including nearly 400 million in Oxford AstraZeneca's,
01:08:23which can be transported in a fridge
01:08:26and costs just three dollars a dose.
01:08:31They also backed the protein vaccine being developed in Queensland.
01:08:37But just a day after the Moderna triumph,
01:08:41the team behind COVAX contacted Keith.
01:08:44Just got off the call.
01:08:46Got some news that really came out of the blue.
01:08:50Yeah, basically we've just had our funding cut.
01:08:55So, yeah, we're out of COVAX,
01:08:59all due to this HIV diagnostic problem.
01:09:06Yeah.
01:09:07It's pretty devastating.
01:09:17A lot of the people from my team are people that come from, you know,
01:09:24Africa, Sri Lanka, countries that, you know,
01:09:29would be putting their hand up for a COVAX funded vaccine.
01:09:34They wanted to be part of giving something to the world,
01:09:39giving back to their communities and all those communities.
01:09:48You know, the vaccine is safe.
01:09:50CSL has hundreds of millions of doses ready to go.
01:09:55It's thermostable, so we can ship it everywhere in a fridge
01:09:59rather than at minus 70, minus 80 degrees.
01:10:03It's just, yeah, there is the problem.
01:10:06There is one problem, which is the diagnostics for HIV.
01:10:22This is radical.
01:10:23Three weeks later, the Australian government also withdrew their funding.
01:10:27Yeah, no, that's right.
01:10:29The advice that we have received
01:10:30and the National Security Committee of Cabinet met this week
01:10:33and made the final decision yesterday
01:10:35is that the University of Queensland vaccine
01:10:38will not be able to proceed based on the scientific advice
01:10:43and that will no longer feature as part of Australia's vaccine plan.
01:10:49With their place in the race over,
01:10:52Keith faced the world's media.
01:10:54I hope that us being completely transparent and upfront
01:10:57about these results boost public confidence in vaccines overall.
01:11:02I think what we've achieved this year has been remarkable.
01:11:05We can hold our heads high and, you know, I think it's a very sad time,
01:11:11but also we're very proud of what we have achieved.
01:11:19Australia's quest for a homegrown vaccine is tonight over.
01:11:23We have led the world in taming the virus,
01:11:26but in the battle to beat it forever,
01:11:28today we were forced to concede defeat.
01:11:33As a scientist, we have a lot of different jobs.
01:11:36We have a job to make a vaccine,
01:11:38but we also have the job to train people, to educate people
01:11:43and to be able to, I guess, step back and say,
01:11:46look, we did all we could.
01:11:51There's these other vaccines that are also looking great,
01:11:56so take those.
01:11:57You know, that's an important part of our job as well.
01:12:01It's not all about making a vaccine and getting to the finish line.
01:12:14It's Sunday night, 22nd of November.
01:12:18I think we are about to find out the result.
01:12:23You know, the two of the other big vaccine manufacturers have released their efficacy results
01:12:27and we've known that we're very close for some time now.
01:12:30I'm feeling excited about it, but now that I know it's so close, I'm also feeling very anxious.
01:12:41A vaccine developed by scientists at Oxford is set to transform the battle against coronavirus around the world.
01:12:54Different trial groups make the Oxford-AstraZeneca results harder to interpret,
01:12:59but the average efficacy is 70%.
01:13:03Not as good as the stellar 95% from Pfizer and Moderna,
01:13:07but it's another vaccine that works.
01:13:10This vaccine is highly effective. It prevents people getting sick.
01:13:15I feel relieved, a bit emotional.
01:13:20I was really worried last night that we would just get a negative result
01:13:24and everything that's happened for the last, you know, 11 months would be, you know, for nothing.
01:13:30So, no, it's good. It's good that we've got a result.
01:13:35When we started on the process of developing vaccines, the target was 50%.
01:13:40I think if you'd put me in this seat 12 months ago and said,
01:13:44would you be happy with a vaccine with 60% efficacy? I'd have been pretty chuffed with that.
01:13:50And within the data, for all three vaccines now over the line, more good news.
01:13:58These vaccines are stopping severe disease. They're stopping you going into hospital.
01:14:04If a vaccine stops you from dying, it's a vaccine I'd put in my arm.
01:14:08We shouldn't keep concentrating on one vaccine being better than another.
01:14:14We should be happy that we have so many vaccines because without a large number,
01:14:19we're never going to be able to vaccinate the whole world.
01:14:26We put our backs into this.
01:14:29And assuming that the regulators give it the green light and that the Department of Health can deploy it,
01:14:34really then it's over to the public to determine what impact it has.
01:14:38In order to get the levels of immunity that we're going to need,
01:14:41we need lots of people to go and get vaccinated,
01:14:43and I think they will and I hope they will,
01:14:44but that's when I'll really feel like we've made a difference.
01:14:53We all want to go back to things more or less how they were before, you know.
01:14:57We all just want normality back, don't we?
01:15:08Just nine days later, on December 2nd, that process began.
01:15:14With vaccines packed and ready to go,
01:15:17the UK became the first country in the world to approve Pfizer's vaccine
01:15:22for use outside a clinical trial.
01:15:26The race for a vaccine was now the race for vaccination.
01:15:3290-year-old Margaret Keenan, well, she'll go down in history.
01:15:36She's become the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19.
01:15:46And in the United States, just two days after the UK's V-Day,
01:15:51the FDA also issued Pfizer an emergency use license.
01:15:59My dad worked for NASA.
01:16:01He was actually invited to mission control in Houston when the first human stepped foot on the moon.
01:16:07I thought, I wonder if I'll ever experience that in my life, that enormous upswelling of emotion and pride.
01:16:15When I saw the truck being loaded, I was absolutely blown away.
01:16:22So many people just cried with joy when our trucks moved away from our factories.
01:16:29In less than 24 hours, the first American will be given a dose of Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine.
01:16:36They said it couldn't be done, but with today's announcement, we have now achieved that goal.
01:16:42There is no hope that these grim days may well come to an end.
01:16:50Following Pfizer, on the 4th of January 2021, Oxford AstraZeneca's vaccine was also authorised in the UK.
01:16:59Vaccines bring hope that the rollout must happen quickly if they're to compete with the virus.
01:17:04But that very same day, the country entered its third national lockdown.
01:17:08So some good news with the AstraZeneca vaccine, but all the figures are going in completely the wrong way.
01:17:16Bit of a weird day.
01:17:18Obviously, really happy to see the vaccine rolled out.
01:17:21But really, really gutted that after the two lockdowns we've already had, all the sacrifices that people have made,
01:17:30not seeing family, not seeing friends, all the opportunities that have been missed, the schooling that's been missed,
01:17:34not seeing everyone over Christmas and, you know, this is where we are back again now.
01:17:39It's just really gutting.
01:17:46On the first anniversary of George Gao publishing the sequence of the novel coronavirus,
01:17:52it was killing people faster than ever.
01:17:59The evidence suggests the vaccines work very well.
01:18:03But when they don't get out fast enough, countries risk losing control to deadly new waves of infection.
01:18:15And this presents a huge opportunity for the virus.
01:18:21By allowing it to get to hundreds of millions of infected people, the virus is going to find ways to
01:18:30evolve.
01:18:31Every single person that's infected gives the virus a new opportunity to mutate.
01:18:38So we're fighting against an enemy that is constantly changing and moving.
01:18:44In the UK, Brazil, India, and here in South Africa, all experiencing soaring infection rates in early 2021,
01:18:55the virus has mutated into so-called variants of concern.
01:19:01The variant of the virus identified in South Africa, for example,
01:19:05is found to have mutations in the spike protein that subtly change its shape.
01:19:13Antibodies that neutralise the original strain of the virus from Wuhan,
01:19:17that all vaccines so far are based on, now don't seem to bind so well.
01:19:25As long as the variants are allowed to expand and they become a concern unchecked,
01:19:31then it just makes the job of the vaccine so much more difficult.
01:19:34And I feel at the moment, we're in a really dangerous position between relaxing too much
01:19:39because we know we've got the vaccines, but relaxing so much that actually we undo all the good work we've
01:19:45done
01:19:46and we see a massive expansion of mutant viruses that then render all of the vaccines ineffective.
01:19:52I'm actually very concerned about this.
01:19:54I'm worried about that people get too joyful and think that everything is okay now.
01:20:02It is not yet okay.
01:20:04If we are not careful and the virus is finding a way to escape immune protection,
01:20:10we could as well start all over again.
01:20:13And in South Africa, start over again is what happened.
01:20:19South Africa has announced it temporarily is stopping the rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
01:20:26This is after a study found that the vaccine was largely ineffective
01:20:31against the new COVID-19 variant that was first identified in South Africa.
01:20:37Despite having a million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine,
01:20:42in February, South Africa made a drastic decision.
01:20:46It quickly obtained limited stocks of another viral vector vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson,
01:20:53which it hoped might work better against the new variant.
01:20:58One of the first recipients was the South African president.
01:21:06Goodbye.
01:21:07The army is still okay.
01:21:10I'm still okay.
01:21:12Around the world, governments and scientists had to grapple with the changing situation.
01:21:19It was a very important factor in the world.
01:21:21It is now that the COVID-19 variant has become more important.
01:21:27It has been more important for us from China and countries.
01:21:29It has been a great challenge for us.
01:21:31The current vaccination has been on the right now.
01:21:34The current vaccination has been on the right now.
01:21:38It has been on the right now.
01:21:40We have been on the right now.
01:21:41It has been on the right now.
01:21:43By March, tens of millions of people had received Chinese vaccines in more than 20 years.
01:21:50from China to Hungary, Indonesia to Zimbabwe.
01:21:54Even though phase three trials were not yet finished,
01:21:58and the early data on these vaccines was incomplete.
01:22:19In the end, it was still very good.
01:22:21That's why we had a full-scale treatment, and a public use.
01:22:30The WHO later approved the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines,
01:22:35and China's unorthodox policy of speeding through roll-out
01:22:39before trial results were finalised seems to have been vindicated.
01:22:45For all vaccine scientists,
01:22:48it's about weighing the benefits against the risks.
01:22:52If you can intervene with, let's say, a 40% effective vaccine,
01:22:58four months before you can intervene with an 80% effective vaccine,
01:23:02you save more lives with a 40% effective vaccine
01:23:07that's delivered four months earlier.
01:23:09And so, being fast in an outbreak setting,
01:23:13in some ways, is more important than being perfect.
01:23:18Difficult decisions must be made everywhere.
01:23:21As in March and April,
01:23:23when evidence mounted of extremely rare side effects
01:23:26connected to at least two of the viral vector vaccines.
01:23:30There is a possible link between the AstraZeneca vaccine
01:23:34and very rare blood clots.
01:23:36A small number of cases of serious blood clots in recipients
01:23:40led to use of the Oxford, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines
01:23:46being halted or partially restricted in several countries.
01:23:51Nineteen people have died.
01:23:53That's out of 20 million who received the jab.
01:23:57That's one rare clot in every 250,000 vaccinations.
01:24:01For the vast majority of people,
01:24:05the risk of these clots is far smaller than the risk from the virus.
01:24:17For the world's vaccine scientists, the race against the virus is far from over.
01:24:24It's not as if we got the efficacy results and we've stopped working.
01:24:29If anything, the work keeps going.
01:24:31We're constantly looking at the new variants.
01:24:34We're constantly measuring, assessing to see if we need new vaccines,
01:24:39to see if we need new booster shots,
01:24:41to see how long our immune response lasts.
01:24:52Keith and his team are back at the bench,
01:24:54now targeting the variants with an updated version of their protein vaccine,
01:24:59this time with no HIV protein at all.
01:25:02So, expression this week, purification next week,
01:25:05this, you know, almost in the future,
01:25:08I can do another shot.
01:25:09And if new vaccines are required,
01:25:12the pioneers of mRNA believe their triumph can be repeated.
01:25:17I don't care about the variants.
01:25:20We have with mRNA-Impfstoffes the possibility,
01:25:23every time the vaccine is 100% to apply,
01:25:27if variants should appear.
01:25:28I'm confident that the whole world will have access to the vaccine.
01:25:33There's no technical reason why this is not possible.
01:25:37There's no financial reason why so many people,
01:25:40so many companies work together.
01:25:43And I'm sure that we will have this vaccine until the end of 2022
01:25:48worldwide worldwide.
01:25:56The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted and is still exacting
01:26:02an unbearable human cost.
01:26:06But thanks to the efforts of a small number of scientists,
01:26:09we are now being protected against an even worse fate.
01:26:15What's more, the way we do science is changed forever.
01:26:21It's been a massive global collaborative effort,
01:26:24whereby everyone is invested in everyone else's success
01:26:29from a vaccine perspective.
01:26:31And so the sharing of knowledge in almost real time
01:26:34is unprecedented in this moment.
01:26:36We have transformed the way that vaccines are made,
01:26:39the way that they're looked at,
01:26:41and the impact the public sees they make.
01:26:45This is not really like anyone's life in science, I think, before.
01:26:50You know, we've changed everything in the last 12 months
01:26:53in terms of not just what we've done,
01:26:55but what we've now shown is possible.
01:26:58To go from a standing start with an unknown pathogen,
01:27:02roll it out, you know, with phase one, phase two, phase three trials,
01:27:06emergency use approval,
01:27:08it's an amazing achievement.
01:27:11Hundreds of thousands of lives have already been saved.
01:27:16As roll-out continues around the world,
01:27:19that number will become tens of millions.
01:27:25It's hoped that in time,
01:27:27everyone will get their invitation to the vaccination clinic.
01:27:36When Kizi and Barney got their call,
01:27:39it was to get their own shot.
01:27:45You're Barney Graham.
01:27:47Yes, I am.
01:27:48Any questions regarding the vaccine?
01:27:50No.
01:27:51I'm ready to go.
01:27:52All right.
01:27:54Kind of thick.
01:27:55How was that?
01:27:56Beautiful.
01:27:58So if you want to head to the observation area,
01:28:00we'll keep an eye on you for 15 minutes.
01:28:03Sometimes I just like to go over to the cafeteria
01:28:06on the NIH campus where a lot of these vaccinations are done
01:28:10and just sit there and watch people be vaccinated.
01:28:14It is really thrilling because it is such a relief to a lot of people.
01:28:20It is amazing to know that you contributed to that.
01:28:36The front line of our incredible NHS on its momentous journey
01:28:39through the global pandemic.
01:28:41All episodes of Award Winning Hospital are streaming now on BBC iPlayer.
01:28:47The last bullet on the stage is a good loss.
01:28:48The end of our master's very honour.
01:29:00The fourth bullet on the stage is a beautiful
01:29:01challenge and we're glad that the needs,
01:29:01to stay connected to our people.
01:29:02The first bullet on the stage is a beautiful dash and a beautiful
01:29:02challenge of having to look to the people.
01:29:02You're not married in Germany.
01:29:06Ludwig, I told you about the world,
01:29:06In the UK of the Lebanese,
01:29:06the last but I know that there was so many years,
01:29:06Two months,
01:29:08The next one would be fulfilled,