Spike by Jeremy Farrar & Anjana Ahuja

RECENTLY PUBLISHED

SPIKE The Virus v The People – The Inside Story JEREMY FARRAR & ANJANA AHUJA

TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

An explosive book about what he witnessed inside government – THE TIMES

A gripping account of the murky interplay between science, medicine, politics, and the media while COVID-19 ravaged the globe… Farrar brings the insider's access, Ahuja the sense of pace and plot that makes an unfolding public health crisis read like a John le Carré spy thriller – Rachel Clarke, LANCET

The covid-19 pandemic will be a source of endless human accounts. But there is an objective scientific narrative to be written about how the early weeks and months of the epidemic unfolded and how the world faced up to the unprecedented threat. SPIKE is that story: the first inside account by one of the world’s most trusted, connected and influential pandemic experts.

Jeremy Farrar, an expert in emerging infectious diseases who has seen epidemics all over the globe, including HIV, Ebola, Sars and H5N1 bird flu, was one of the first people to hear about a mysterious new respiratory virus in China – and to learn it is more contagious and spreads more quickly than human influenza. He helped to mobilize the global science community through the World Health Organization and has a major role advising governments around the world (from 2017 until 2019, for instance, he was a member of the German Ministry of Health’s International Advisory Board on Global Health).

SPIKE is a riveting account of what it feels like at the sharp end of such a fast-moving situation, when complex decisions must be made quickly with minimal information and in the face of great uncertainty. With the acclaimed science writer Anjana Ahuja, Farrar weaves a fast-paced narrative that transports readers to pivotal moments in the pandemic. They show the human side of science, introducing researchers studying this unusual virus and predicting its next move. Along the way they demystify what happens when a new disease breaks out, explain the evolving science (including vaccines and treatments) and shed light on the perpetual struggle between people and pathogens.

JEREMY FARRAR is director of the Wellcome Trust, a biomedical research charity and one of the world’s wealthiest charitable foundations. Among numerous national and international advisory roles, he is the chair of the Scientific Advisory Group of the WHO R&D Blueprint (a strategy and preparedness plan for activating research in epidemics) and a member of the WHO group setting out principles of equitable access to covid-19 medicines and vaccines. Before joining Wellcome in 2013, he directed the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He has made outstanding contributions to the understanding of many diseases including tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid, dengue and influenza, and trained researchers and doctors across southeast Asia. He was knighted for services to global health in 2019.

ANJANA AHUJA is the Financial Times’s science columnist and was one of the first UK journalists to interview scientists about the mystery pneumonia from Wuhan. She has since covered almost every aspect of the pandemic for the FT. She also contributes to the New Statesman and has hosted live webcasts and podcasts on covid-19 for organizations including the Royal Society. Anjana first met Jeremy in 2006, when she travelled to Vietnam to report on an H5N1 outbreak for the London Times.

Agent: Peter Tallack

Publisher: Profile Publication: 27 Julyl 2021 Length: 272 pages