The First Shots
The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine
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The First Shots
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Narrated by:
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Dan Woren
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By:
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Brendan Borrell
About this listen
The full inside story of the high-stakes global race for the lifesaving vaccine to end the pandemic
Heroic science. Chaotic politics. Billionaire entrepreneurs. Award-winning journalist Brendan Borrell brings the defining story of our times alive through thoroughly enjoyable first-time reporting on the players leading the fight against a vicious virus. The First Shots, soon to be the subject of an HBO limited series with superstar director and producer Adam McKay (Succession, Vice, The Big Short), draws on exclusive high-level access to weave together the intense vaccine-race conflicts among hard-driving, heroic scientists and the epic rivalries among Washington power players that shaped 18 months of fear, resolve, and triumph.
From infectious disease expert Michael Callahan, an American doctor secretly on the ground in Wuhan in January 2020 to gauge the terrifying ravages of Disease X; to Robert (Dr. Bob) Kadlec, one of Operation Warp Speed’s architects, whose audacious plans for the American people run straight into the buzz saw of the Trump White House factions; to Stéphane Bancel of upstart Moderna Therapeutics going toe-to-toe with pharma behemoth Pfizer, The First Shots lays bare, in a way we have not seen, the full stunning story behind the medical science “moon shot” of our lifetimes.
©2021 Brendan Borrell (P)2022 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Dr. Paul Elias Alexander, Kent Heckenlively
- Narrated by: Bob Johnson
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story5 out of 5 stars 32
In January 2020, Donald Trump was on the fast track to an easy re-election. While his first two years had been stymied by House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Democrats, his third year had been one of remarkable success. The United States had low unemployment and was making strides across the globe. The president's rallies were well-attended, and he was being projected to win four hundred electoral votes and about forty-five states. Then came COVID-19.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Must listen!!
- By Christina Borkowski on 01-10-23
By: Dr. Paul Elias Alexander, and others
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Silent Invasion
- The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It's Too Late
- By: Deborah Birx
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 129
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 113
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 114
In late February 2020, Dr. Deborah Birx—a lifelong federal health official who had worked at the CDC, the State Department, and the US Army across multiple presidential administrations—was asked to join the Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force and assist the already faltering federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic. For weeks, she’d been raising the alarm behind the scenes about what she saw happening in public—from the apparent lack of urgency at the White House to the routine downplaying of the risks to Americans.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great insight into Public Health
- By Ann-Karen Weller on 05-09-22
By: Deborah Birx
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It Shouldn't Be This Hard to Serve Your Country
- Our Broken Government and the Plight of Veterans
- By: David Shulkin
- Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May, David Shulkin
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 69
Known in health care circles for his ability to fix ailing hospitals, Dr. David Shulkin was originally brought into government by President Obama, in an attempt to save the broken Department of Veterans Affairs. When President Trump made him VA secretary, Dr. Shulkin was as shocked as anyone. Yet this surprise was trivial compared to what Shulkin encountered as the VA secretary: a team of political appointees devoted to stopping anyone - including the secretary himself - who stood in the way of privatizing the organization and implementing their agenda.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Powerful Account by an Impressive Public Servant
- By Tom on 12-10-19
By: David Shulkin
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How to Survive a Plague
- The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS
- By: David France
- Narrated by: Rory O'Malley
- Length: 24 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 330
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 308
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 307
A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Read This Book!
- By Kay M Hawklee on 05-30-17
By: David France
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The Desperate Hours
- One Hospital's Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic's Front Lines
- By: Marie Brenner
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 arrived in New York City. Before long, America’s largest metropolis was at war against a virus that mercilessly swept through its five boroughs. In The Desperate Hours, award-winning journalist Marie Brenner, having been granted unprecedented 18-month access to the entire New York-Presbyterian hospital system, tells the story of the doctors, nurses, residents, researchers, and suppliers who tried to save lives across Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn and the northern periphery of the city.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Way too much politics
- By Josh on 07-18-22
By: Marie Brenner
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Editing Humanity
- The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing
- By: Kevin Davies
- Narrated by: Kevin Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 65
Engrossing and captivating, Editing Humanity takes listeners inside the fascinating world of a new gene editing technology called CRISPR, a high-powered genetic toolkit that enables scientists to not only engineer but to edit the DNA of any organism down to the individual building blocks of the genetic code. Davies introduces listeners to arguably the most profound scientific breakthrough of our time. He tracks the scientists on the front lines of its research to the patients whose powerful stories bring the narrative movingly to human scale.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent content, solid execution
- By Samuel Finlayson on 01-25-21
By: Kevin Davies
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Beating Back the Devil
- By: Maryn McKenna
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 197
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 125
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 129
The universal instinct is to run from an outbreak of disease. These doctors run toward it. They always keep a bag packed. They seldom have more than 24 hours before they are dispatched. They are told only their country of destination and the epidemic they will tackle when they get there.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting Stuff - Only criticism is pacing
- By Tim on 07-23-05
By: Maryn McKenna
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The Rationing
- A Novel
- By: Charles Wheelan
- Narrated by: Josh Hurley
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
America is in trouble - at the mercy of a puzzling pathogen. That ordinarily wouldn’t lead to catastrophe, thanks to modern medicine, but there’s just one problem: the government supply of Dormigen, the silver bullet of pharmaceuticals, has been depleted just as demand begins to spike. Set in the near future, The Rationing centers around a White House struggling to quell the crisis - and control the narrative.
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4 out of 5 stars
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For A While I Thought It Wasn’t Fiction
- By Brian on 10-12-19
By: Charles Wheelan
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Plague of Corruption
- Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science
- By: Dr. Judy Mikovits, Kent Heckenlively, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Narrated by: Mariel Hemingway
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 808
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 721
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Story5 out of 5 stars 719
Dr. Judy Mikovits is a modern-day Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant researcher shaking up the old boys' club of science with her groundbreaking discoveries. And like many women who have trespassed into the world of men, she uncovered decades-old secrets that many would prefer to stay buried.
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5 out of 5 stars
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If only most of the public knew these facts
- By David Getoff, CCN on 06-18-20
By: Dr. Judy Mikovits, and others
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Epic Measures
- One Doctor. Seven Billion Patients.
- By: Jeremy N. Smith
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
Moneyball meets medicine in this remarkable chronicle of one of the greatest scientific quests of our time - the groundbreaking program to answer the most essential question for humanity: How do we live and die? - and the visionary mastermind behind it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fabulously insightful read!
- By Dr. Jack E. Fincham on 10-08-15
By: Jeremy N. Smith
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Germs
- Biological Weapons and America's Secret War
- By: Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, William Broad
- Narrated by: Murphy Guyer
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 129
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 77
Three New York Times reporters uncover the truth about biological weapons. In a frightening and unforgettable narrative of cutting-edge science and spycraft, Germs reconstructs the former Soviet and Iraqi germ warfare programs, and how they affected U.S. policy. "Chilling," says Booklist.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Should be called "Beltway Dollars"
- By G. Spence on 07-14-15
By: Judith Miller, and others
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Lab 257
- The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Germ Laboratory
- By: Michael Christopher Carroll
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 195
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 174
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 176
Strictly off limits to the public, Plum Island is home to virginal beaches, cliffs, forests, ponds - and the deadliest germs that have ever roamed the planet. Lab 257 blows the lid off the stunning true nature and checkered history of Plum Island. It shows that the seemingly bucolic island in the shadow of New York City is a ticking biological time bomb that none of us can safely ignore.
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2 out of 5 stars
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More Politics Than Science
- By A Customer on 05-26-17
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Influenza
- The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic
- By: Dr. Jeremy Brown
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 361
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 309
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 307
On the 100th anniversary of the devastating pandemic of 1918, Jeremy Brown, a veteran ER doctor, explores the troubling, terrifying, and complex history of the flu virus, from the origins of the Great Flu that killed millions, to vexing questions such as: are we prepared for the next epidemic, should you get a flu shot, and how close are we to finding a cure?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Important read
- By Kathryn C. on 12-21-18
By: Dr. Jeremy Brown
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Polio
- An American Story
- By: David M. Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 594
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 424
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 423
This comprehensive and gripping narrative, which received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for history, covers all the challenges, characters, and controversies in America's relentless struggle against polio. Funded by philanthropy and grassroots contributions, Salk's killed-virus vaccine (1954) and Sabin's live-virus vaccine (1961) began to eradicate this dreaded disease.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
- By Patricia B Tripoli on 07-22-08
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Splendid Solution
- Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
- By: Jeffrey Kluger
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 248
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 151
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 153
Salk became a cultural hero and icon for a whole generation. Now, at the fiftieth anniversary of the first national vaccination program, and as humanity is tantalizingly close to eradicating polio worldwide, comes this unforgettable chronicle. Salk's work was an unparalleled achievement, and it makes for a magnificent listen.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book
- By Tim on 08-10-06
By: Jeffrey Kluger
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Until Proven Safe
- The History and Future of Quarantine
- By: Nicola Twilley, Geoff Manaugh
- Narrated by: Kristen DiMercurio
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
Quarantine is our most powerful response to uncertainty: it means waiting to see if something hidden inside us will be revealed. It is also one of our most dangerous, operating through an assumption of guilt. In quarantine, we are considered infectious until proven safe. Until Proven Safe tracks the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space - from the crumbling lazarettos of the Mediterranean, built to contain the Black Death, to an experimental Ebola unit in London, and from the hallways of the CDC.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent writing, timely and informative
- By MSE on 07-24-21
By: Nicola Twilley, and others
What listeners say about The First Shots
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Unhappy Patron
- 05-09-23
Measured and accurate.
I worked in ASPR during the pandemic. This is an accurate depiction of some of the behind the curtain activities. It highlights what Americans can achieve despite the politics.
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