How an email to a scientist in her pyjamas began an astonishing story — the creation of a groundbreaking vaccine in less than 12 months thetimes.co.uk/article/how-ox…

Over the past year Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, has been tackling a daunting a mission: to develop a life-saving vaccine against Covid-19.

The Oxford University professor is a keen mountaineer and once took part in a British expedition up Everest. The struggle to conquer a virus doesn’t always have a single summit or simple ending.

In recent weeks scientists have found the Oxford vaccine is less effective than hoped against a South African variant of coronavirus.

Pollard’s team is now climbing a new mountain, striving to refine its vaccine by autumn to get on top of this mutation.

Nevertheless the story of how the vaccine was developed and rolled out at world-beating speed remains extraordinary.