Taskforce wanted -- An email, a text and a call -- A team at speed -- Working from home -- Setting the strategy -- The ways of Whitehall -- Oxford's triumph -- Choosing a messenger -- Picking the rest of the portfolio -- Making it here -- The clinical finish -- Preparing for deployment -- Rolling it out -- Government (mis)communications -- Mugged by the media -- Looking back.

"In Britain, over the early months of 2020, we watched helplessly as Covid-19 crept ever closer to home. Then came the first infections, the first deaths and the first lockdown. On 3 April 2020, the idea of producing a fast, effective Covid-19 vaccine seemed a pipe dream. Against all expectations, on 8 December 2020 that same year the first NHS patient received a vaccine. Now nearly every adult in Britain has had a jab, lockdowns have ended and we can finally live with Covid. 'The Long Shot' reveals how a small team pulled off this scientific and organisational miracle. Working from a cottage miles away from Westminster, Kate Bingham juggled vaccine suppliers, Whitehall, the media circus and the needs of her family. Political manoeuvring, miscommunications and administrative meddling nearly jeopardised the project. But perseverance paid off, changing the course of the pandemic in Britain and the world. Catapulted into a national crisis, Bingham and her eclectic team worked round the clock, with the scientists who became household names, to secure the first vaccine doses administered in the West and in enough numbers to vaccinate the UK population in a year."-- Taken from dust-jacket.