Inside STAT: The inside story of how scientists across three continents produced an Ebola vaccine

HEALTH WORKERS SPEAK WITH PEOPLE AWAITING MEDICAL TREATMENT IN A FORMER EBOLA HOLDING CENTER, IN MONROVIA, LIBERIA IN 2015. (JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES)

The approval of a highly anticipated Ebola vaccine last month should never have happened. Long before the 2014 outbreak in West Africa put the deadly disease on the map, many scientists poured their hearts into developing a vaccine they hoped would one day help people. And when the outbreak broke out, the scientists readily offered it to the WHO, which thought it too premature to deploy in the emergency. But as the death toll rapidly grew, the balance tipped, and the vaccine was tested — setting it on the road to FDA approval three years later. In an exclusive new feature, one that STAT’s Helen Branswell says she has been collecting material on for the past 15 years, she recounts the work that went into developing the vaccine across three continents and multiple scientists. Read the story here.