You read it here first
I heard the most extraordinary programme on BBC Radio Four on Saturday evening. The 14-minuter was called Profile: Professor Sarah Gilbert and heralded the professor as "The no-nonsense scientist whose team is developing a coronavirus vaccine
at record speed."
What was extraordinary about this programme was not that Prof. Gilbert played the oboe very well as a kid, although that is remarkable. It is a very difficult instrument to play at all, let alone well. Neither is it that she later sprung triplets. Again, remarkable, but not, in itself, deserving of a 14-minute slot on Radio Four.
That she has done some snappy work in the labs is obviously good news all round, especially for those of us who haven't had Covid-19 and don't particularly want it.
No, what was extraordinary about this programme was the clear sense that Professor Sarah Gilbert had cracked it. That the vaccine was going to work. That the thing was done. They'd solved it. That she and her team at the Jenner Institute had produced a working, workable, reproducable, effective vaccine for Covid-19.
Nobody said that. They couldn't. But that was the clear message. Oh yes, all the tests were still being done and results not yet compliled, analysed and nailed, but there was an unavoidable sense of triumph. They'd bloody done it. Gilbert and her team. They'd only bloody done it!
Listen for yourselves. Tell me, once you've heard it, if that isn't the unspoken conclusion you too arrive at. Not merely hopeful, or fearful with fingers desperately crossed, but really quite openly confident. We've cracked it, they all but say.
Suggestions that Prof. Gilbert will be the most famous scientist in the world, and will have institutes named after her were jokingly but knowingly laughed off. Why would that even be suggested if there wasn't enormous confidence in the efficacy of her team's work?
Track it down and listen for yourself on iplayer. It's only 14 minutes long.
When eventually the Professor announces the results publicly (or the government steal that moment from her) remember that you heard it here first.
In fact, this confidence in echoed throughout government. They wouldn't have bought 100 gazillion doses unless they were bloody sure. And they wouldn't have told us they'd done it unless they were even surer. This programme, was just the third or fourth clear indication. I'm not even going to say that I might be wrong. I'm sticking my neck out. Rather like this programme did.
Now is the time for the anti-vaccine lobby to get into gear.
What was extraordinary about this programme was not that Prof. Gilbert played the oboe very well as a kid, although that is remarkable. It is a very difficult instrument to play at all, let alone well. Neither is it that she later sprung triplets. Again, remarkable, but not, in itself, deserving of a 14-minute slot on Radio Four.
That she has done some snappy work in the labs is obviously good news all round, especially for those of us who haven't had Covid-19 and don't particularly want it.
No, what was extraordinary about this programme was the clear sense that Professor Sarah Gilbert had cracked it. That the vaccine was going to work. That the thing was done. They'd solved it. That she and her team at the Jenner Institute had produced a working, workable, reproducable, effective vaccine for Covid-19.
Nobody said that. They couldn't. But that was the clear message. Oh yes, all the tests were still being done and results not yet compliled, analysed and nailed, but there was an unavoidable sense of triumph. They'd bloody done it. Gilbert and her team. They'd only bloody done it!
Listen for yourselves. Tell me, once you've heard it, if that isn't the unspoken conclusion you too arrive at. Not merely hopeful, or fearful with fingers desperately crossed, but really quite openly confident. We've cracked it, they all but say.
Suggestions that Prof. Gilbert will be the most famous scientist in the world, and will have institutes named after her were jokingly but knowingly laughed off. Why would that even be suggested if there wasn't enormous confidence in the efficacy of her team's work?
Track it down and listen for yourself on iplayer. It's only 14 minutes long.
When eventually the Professor announces the results publicly (or the government steal that moment from her) remember that you heard it here first.
In fact, this confidence in echoed throughout government. They wouldn't have bought 100 gazillion doses unless they were bloody sure. And they wouldn't have told us they'd done it unless they were even surer. This programme, was just the third or fourth clear indication. I'm not even going to say that I might be wrong. I'm sticking my neck out. Rather like this programme did.
Now is the time for the anti-vaccine lobby to get into gear.
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