THE MOON SHOT

It can be hard to remember after years of collective grief and bitter politics, but a COVID-19 vaccine was never a sure thing. Joe Nocera and Bethany McLean report on the unlikely group of scientists, generals, and government officials who supercharged the effort to get us back to some kind of normal

ON A CHILLY DAY IN MID-APRIL 2020, MONCEF SLAOUI, THE RETIRED HEAD OF THE VACCINE DEPARTMENT AT THE PHARMACEUTICAL GIANT GlaxoSmithKline, was sitting by his unopened pool in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, when his phone rang. The hopeful hint of spring in the air belied the dark desperation that suffused the world as the COVID-19 pandemic raged and the world's wealthiest country struggled to figure out a way forward.

The caller was Jim Greenwood, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who, since 2005, had served as the CEO of the trade association BIO, short for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. Greenwood was reaching out after getting a call from Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. He had an urgent question for Slaoui: "Do you think that if you had unlimited resources, money, and people that we could have a vaccine against COVID-19 widely available by the end of the year?"

On one level, Slaoui was an unlikely recipient of such a call. He was no fan of Donald Trump, and of course Trump had no use for anyone who didn't support him. Slaoui had never even been a Republican. He was an immigrant from Morocco, one of four siblings, all of whom got either their PhD or their MD, even though neither parent had gone to college. His childhood was a time of rampant repression; Slaoui's memories of high school in Casablanca included frequent student strikes followed by army clampdowns.

When he headed to the Free University of Brussels, he became part of the Moroccan Student Union, a Marxist group that wanted to make Morocco a more populist and democratic country. Slaoui, who is fluent in English, French, and Arabic, speaks in a measured and cosmopolitan manner that can mask strong passions. At that time, his passion was politics. For several years, he did little academic work, spending his time instead on activism.