How to Make a Vaccine

EPUB

English language

Published March 28, 2021 by University of Chicago Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-226-79265-1

Distinguished expert in vaccine development John Rhodes tells the story of the first approved COVID-19 vaccines and offers an essential, up-to-the-minute primer on how scientists discover, test, and distribute vaccines.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has affected every corner of the world, changing our relationship to our communities, to our jobs, and to each other, the most pressing question has been—when will it end? Researchers around the globe are urgently trying to answer this question by racing to test and distribute a vaccine that could end the greatest public health threat of our time. In How to Make a Vaccine, an expert who has firsthand experience developing vaccines tells an optimistic story of how three hundred years of vaccine discovery and a century and a half of immunology research have come together at this powerful moment—and will lead to multiple COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. John Rhodes draws on his experience …

Distinguished expert in vaccine development John Rhodes tells the story of the first approved COVID-19 vaccines and offers an essential, up-to-the-minute primer on how scientists discover, test, and distribute vaccines.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has affected every corner of the world, changing our relationship to our communities, to our jobs, and to each other, the most pressing question has been—when will it end? Researchers around the globe are urgently trying to answer this question by racing to test and distribute a vaccine that could end the greatest public health threat of our time. In How to Make a Vaccine, an expert who has firsthand experience developing vaccines tells an optimistic story of how three hundred years of vaccine discovery and a century and a half of immunology research have come together at this powerful moment—and will lead to multiple COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. John Rhodes draws on his experience as an immunologist, including working alongside a young Anthony Fauci, to unravel the mystery of how vaccines are designed, tested, and produced at scale for global deployment. Concise and accessible, this book describes in everyday language how the immune system evolved to combat infection, how viruses responded by evolving ways to evade our defenses, and how vaccines do their work. That history, and the pace of current research developments, make Rhodes hopeful that multiple vaccines will protect us. Today the complex workings of the immune system are well understood. The tools needed by biomedical scientists stand ready to be used, and more than 160 vaccine candidates have already been produced. But defeating COVID-19 won't be the end of the story: Rhodes describes how discoveries today are also empowering scientists to combat future threats to global health, including a recent breakthrough in the development of genetic vaccines, which have never before been used in humans.

As the world prepares for a vaccine, Rhodes offers a current and informative look at the science and strategies that deliver solutions to the crisis.

1 edition

Soh Kam Yung reviewed How to Make a Vaccine by John Rhodes

An interesting book on the history of vaccines, how they are produced, and the society issues around current COVID-19 vaccines over development, access and distribution.

3 stars

Chapter one gives an overview and a history of viruses, starting with the Spanish Flu. A closer look at the viruses that causes SARS and COVID-19 is then given.

Chapter two looks at the history of discoveries on the immune system and how the various cells that make up the immune system detect and act to discover foreign particles in the body and react to eliminate it.

Chapter three looks at the history of vaccination and vaccines. Starting with the story of the smallpox vaccine, it then moves on to the development of live and dead vaccines, the use of adjuvants to improve the response of vaccines, and the development of other kinds of vaccines, including a mention of DNA and RNA based vaccines.

Chapter four looks at what it takes to make vaccines: from the initial research and discovery, through to trials and manufacturing. The vaccine …

Chapter one gives an overview and a history of viruses, starting with the Spanish Flu. A closer look at the viruses that causes SARS and COVID-19 is then given.

Chapter two looks at the history of discoveries on the immune system and how the various cells that make up the immune system detect and act to discover foreign particles in the body and react to eliminate it.

Chapter three looks at the history of vaccination and vaccines. Starting with the story of the smallpox vaccine, it then moves on to the development of live and dead vaccines, the use of adjuvants to improve the response of vaccines, and the development of other kinds of vaccines, including a mention of DNA and RNA based vaccines.

Chapter four looks at what it takes to make vaccines: from the initial research and discovery, through to trials and manufacturing. The vaccine or other chemicals used may fail at any stage or even outside it, if it does not align with the interests of the pharmaceutical company doing the research.

Chapter five looks at the various vaccine technologies available that were used to create vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, some traditional (like dead and live virus vaccines) to the latest (mRNA vaccines).

Chapter six considers whether vaccines are 'magic bullets' and shows that they aren't. Using examples like the search for an HIV vaccine and various flu vaccines, the author conclude that current vaccines need to be good enough to protect people from serious illness. Drugs can also help by reducing the length is the illness.

Chapter seven looks at the challenges faced by vaccines, from anti-vaccination groups, and misinformation to ensuring equal access to vaccines to people from around the world.

Chapter eight briefly looks at the status of vaccines for COVID-19, of which there are many, some already in production, other waiting for approval, and remind us that there are many ways to solve the problem.