The Long Shot Format: Paperback

How Covid-19 vaccines went from the laboratory to people’s arms – the inside story of an extraordinary national campaign against all odds

A Sunday Times bestseller and Financial Times Book of the Year.

The unmissable inside story of the race against the virus.

Catapulted into an international crisis, Kate Bingham knew the odds were heavily stacked against a workable Covid-19 vaccine.

From a remote cottage, Bingham juggled vaccine suppliers, Whitehall, the media circus… as deaths mounted and the world shut down. Political manoeuvring, miscommunications and administrative meddling nearly jeopardised the project. But perseverance and expertise paid off.

Bingham’s eclectic team secured the first vaccine doses administered in the West, saving thousands of lives in the UK as new variants struck. Now, nearly every adult in Britain has had the jab, lockdowns have ended and we can finally live with Covid.

This is the insider view into how the Vaccine Taskforce beat those long odds and delivered a scientific miracle.

Dame Kate Bingham served as the Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, on a seven-month unpaid secondment, steering a team of experts to deliver the world’s fastest Covid-19 vaccination programme. She is Managing Partner at life sciences venture capital firm SV Health Investors where she co-leads SV’s biotech franchise which has a long history of developing transformational new medicines. She was awarded a DBE for her services as Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce.