1 00:00:00,390 --> 00:00:05,580 Andrew Pollard is a central figure in the quest for a vaccine against Kofod, 19. 2 00:00:05,580 --> 00:00:12,390 He's professor of paediatric infection and immunity and director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, his fellow of St Cross College, 3 00:00:12,390 --> 00:00:18,270 Oxford Mountain, climb of some note, having scaled three of the major peaks in the Himalayas. 4 00:00:18,270 --> 00:00:25,080 Andrew, thank you for coming today to speak on some cross coloured shorts. Thank you very much for inviting me standing. 5 00:00:25,080 --> 00:00:33,030 It's been a very memorable year in so many ways. Can you remember your everyday research life within the university before Copart 19? 6 00:00:33,030 --> 00:00:39,270 It's actually very hard to think of anything else other than what's going to happen today. 7 00:00:39,270 --> 00:00:43,740 So it's very difficult to think back to that period when life was normal, 8 00:00:43,740 --> 00:00:51,000 where my normal day was working in the children's hospital as a paediatrician, where I leave the infectious disease service. 9 00:00:51,000 --> 00:01:00,120 So we look after children with infections in the hospital and then cycling from there over to the vaccine centre where I work on 10 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:08,520 vaccine development for new vaccines for children and spend a lot of time travelling around the world to our various research sites, 11 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:16,020 particularly in South Asia. All of that has completely stopped over the past year to focus completely on this virus, 12 00:01:16,020 --> 00:01:19,710 which has really been messing our lives up for the last 12 months. 13 00:01:19,710 --> 00:01:25,050 How much of a crunching of gears was the shift at full on covered 19 work when it happened? 14 00:01:25,050 --> 00:01:30,110 It's a crunching of gears in many ways because it's, first of all, a change in direction. 15 00:01:30,110 --> 00:01:38,310 But then also it's completely changed the nature of the day, which has been so intense and for such long periods. 16 00:01:38,310 --> 00:01:39,510 But of course, like everyone else, 17 00:01:39,510 --> 00:01:47,670 a lot of that actually been sitting in front of a computer screen looking at two dimensional people rather than the normal world I like, 18 00:01:47,670 --> 00:01:53,850 which you're seeing real people in three dimensions. I started the pandemic as vice master of St Cross, 19 00:01:53,850 --> 00:02:02,700 and I feel I made very little contribution to that role during 2020 and finished my term at the start of 2021. 20 00:02:02,700 --> 00:02:07,530 And so have handed that on to Kevin Marsh, who's ably taken the reins. 21 00:02:07,530 --> 00:02:10,410 So how did the Curve 19 work unfold? 22 00:02:10,410 --> 00:02:19,800 I think if you think back to January, there was still a lot of uncertainty about whether this virus was going to actually be a big player. 23 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:26,910 But by February, it had become very apparent to at least those of us in the scientific community 24 00:02:26,910 --> 00:02:32,460 that this pandemic was going to have the most enormous impact on humanity. 25 00:02:32,460 --> 00:02:39,210 And of course, now, looking back today, we can see exactly how disastrous that's been for human health, 26 00:02:39,210 --> 00:02:46,990 for the huge death rate that is caused around the world. But the knock on impacts on economies, on education of children, 27 00:02:46,990 --> 00:02:57,150 that those problems are going to be things which we are going to continue to face beyond controlling the virus to actually come out of this bank. 28 00:02:57,150 --> 00:03:02,010 So some form of normality is going to take many, many years. 29 00:03:02,010 --> 00:03:05,640 So what have been the principal challenges for you and your group? 30 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:12,240 Well, I think we've had to initially tried to work out a completely different way of working. 31 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:17,460 We really were getting underway at a point where lockdown was just about to happen. 32 00:03:17,460 --> 00:03:25,110 There were supply chains of all of the equipment and that we needed for running clinical trials wasn't available. 33 00:03:25,110 --> 00:03:32,730 And, you know, we spent many hours on phone calls to try and find thermometer's, which suddenly became not available anywhere in Europe. 34 00:03:32,730 --> 00:03:38,190 So, so many challenges in supplies that were logistical constraints. 35 00:03:38,190 --> 00:03:46,140 We also had to learn how to run clinics and social distancing, which hadn't been invented at the point where we were getting underway. 36 00:03:46,140 --> 00:03:53,550 So I think there were lots of new things which we hadn't experienced before. On the other hand, things like recruitment into trials. 37 00:03:53,550 --> 00:04:02,280 We opened our website to ask for volunteers and within a matter of hours we had to have 10000 people wanting to take part in the trial. 38 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:07,860 So other things have been much easier than they are in normal times, the day to day for the group. 39 00:04:07,860 --> 00:04:13,050 It's been the most intense period of work, seven days a week for the whole year. 40 00:04:13,050 --> 00:04:19,680 Just to try to bring us to the point that where does it help to mentally and physically being a mountain climber? 41 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:26,460 Well, I think one thing from particularly climbing big mountains is that you have to work as a team. 42 00:04:26,460 --> 00:04:32,700 And so that teamwork is absolutely critical. And in fact, in research and collaborative research that I do anyway, 43 00:04:32,700 --> 00:04:38,940 being able to work across institutions and the different teams of people is really important. 44 00:04:38,940 --> 00:04:44,250 I think the other thing which in in any pressured situation, particularly where we are, 45 00:04:44,250 --> 00:04:51,480 where the pressure just doesn't go away day to day, is the stamina and the persistence that you need to keep going. 46 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:56,480 And that's been something which I think has been critical for so many of us here. 47 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:59,920 And I have to say that the pressures mentally on. 48 00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:04,870 People during this last year have been intense. What have been the key milestones for you and your group? 49 00:05:04,870 --> 00:05:07,930 Can you recall some specific events? 50 00:05:07,930 --> 00:05:16,300 Well, I think perhaps that really getting the first doses of vaccine into people back on the 21st of April last year was a major milestone, 51 00:05:16,300 --> 00:05:20,590 a huge, huge effort to get to the point where that that started. 52 00:05:20,590 --> 00:05:30,760 And then I think just a couple of months later, getting trials initiated in Brazil and South Africa so that we could move to the large scale 53 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:36,160 evaluation of the vaccine to find out whether it really worked or not was incredibly important. 54 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:39,790 Perhaps the next big milestone was the first time we got to look at the data, 55 00:05:39,790 --> 00:05:44,590 which was towards the end of November, and to see that the vaccine actually worked. 56 00:05:44,590 --> 00:05:51,700 But, of course, the really important next milestone was to get the regulators to review all the data and get approval, 57 00:05:51,700 --> 00:06:00,430 which happened at the end of January. But for me, in many ways, the most important moment was just a few weeks ago when our vaccine, 58 00:06:00,430 --> 00:06:06,820 following approval from the World Health Organisation, started landing in low income countries all over the world. 59 00:06:06,820 --> 00:06:10,540 The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is a vaccine for the world. 60 00:06:10,540 --> 00:06:17,830 How does the vaccine work? Well, the vaccine actually works in the same way as all other vaccines and in that they are 61 00:06:17,830 --> 00:06:23,680 focussed on a protein which decorates the service of trying to boskell spike protein. 62 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:28,330 And that protein is made in our bodies so that we can make an immune response that fights 63 00:06:28,330 --> 00:06:34,060 it by vaccinating people their immune system remembers it is met by protein before. 64 00:06:34,060 --> 00:06:43,600 So if we do get exposed to the disease, our bodies are able to remember that previous exposure and stop the infection in instruments. 65 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:52,630 What makes it a vaccine for the world? Well, the key thing for it to be available everywhere has been that it's not for profit and 66 00:06:52,630 --> 00:06:58,120 that it can be transported at frigid temperatures using the normal chain of cold. 67 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:00,730 This is develop a vaccine as normally. 68 00:07:00,730 --> 00:07:12,280 And because there's been a large amount of donation from AstraZeneca to Kovacs facility, which distributes vaccines and all low income countries. 69 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,640 But it is not for profit in all countries. It's not just through Kovacs. 70 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:19,660 That's also for rich countries to try and make sure they're accessible everywhere. 71 00:07:19,660 --> 00:07:25,090 The whole point of the partnership with AstraZeneca is you need a global pharmaceutical company to do that. 72 00:07:25,090 --> 00:07:33,580 And those logistics are just astonishingly difficult. But I have had the great privilege to be involved in the local vaccination centre here 73 00:07:33,580 --> 00:07:39,010 in Oxford at the Kazam Football Stadium and to see the amazing efforts of the rollout. 74 00:07:39,010 --> 00:07:43,900 And I think also to see members of the public coming forward with tears in their eyes and with the 75 00:07:43,900 --> 00:07:50,500 hope that having a vaccine gives to all of us to start protection against this fearful disease. 76 00:07:50,500 --> 00:07:56,170 Well, I'm very pleased to have had my first vaccine, Andrew, but I guess the story doesn't end there. 77 00:07:56,170 --> 00:07:57,760 Well, we've we've still got a long way to go. 78 00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:05,260 I mean, the UK is doing incredibly well in providing vaccinations and walking down the ages as we are at the moment. 79 00:08:05,260 --> 00:08:10,630 But there are seven billion people on the planet and there's not nearly enough doses of vaccines to go around. 80 00:08:10,630 --> 00:08:14,050 And one company, one development can't do all of that. 81 00:08:14,050 --> 00:08:23,380 So we've really got to continue the work with other vaccine developers to make sure that we've got enough doses for everyone who needs it. 82 00:08:23,380 --> 00:08:25,180 Can I ask one further question? 83 00:08:25,180 --> 00:08:34,060 Can you see your work staying on firmly on Coupet 19 into the foreseeable future, or is there something else on the horizon? 84 00:08:34,060 --> 00:08:38,200 Well, I certainly hope that Kobe can get behind this before too long. 85 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:40,770 But there are important questions still to address. 86 00:08:40,770 --> 00:08:47,960 We're working in a number of countries to look at the impact of the vaccines against the new variants. 87 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:56,200 I think we're reasonably confident there's going to be a substantial impact still against severe disease and death caused by new variants. 88 00:08:56,200 --> 00:09:05,890 There is some concern that new variants will still able to escape some immunity and be able to transmit even if they don't cause such severe disease. 89 00:09:05,890 --> 00:09:10,420 And so we are making updated vaccines as well that they're going to need testing. 90 00:09:10,420 --> 00:09:16,240 Fortunately, much smaller scale than than last year. So there are certainly many months of work still to go. 91 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:20,320 Andrew Prahlad, thank you for speaking on some cross couple of shots. Great pleasure. 92 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:23,112 Thank you for inviting me.