Guest Speaker - Dr Marion Watson

On Monday 15th April, our guest speaker was Dr Marion Watson Head of Operations at the Jenner Institute which is part of the Nuffield Department of medicine at Oxford University.

Marion oversees a wide range of clinical trials and research and development activities on vaccines for malaria, TB and emerging pathogens. Notably, since early 2020, Marion has been involved with vaccine trials for COVID-19.

Marion made the science of her work accessible to a bunch of writers and explained how the threat from this particular coronavirus has been diminished by the ongoing and vital vaccine campaign set against the part our own immune systems are playing. She talked about how Oxford University had underwritten funding for the early development of the vaccine in the absence of government funding and that now, many millions of doses are being freely distributed around the world. Marion talked about the need to be vigilant regarding mutations of Covid-19 and threats from the many other forms of coronavirus. She explained how the team at the Jenner institute has for many years been tracking the various forms of coronavirus so that when Covid-19 struck, they were prepared to focus their research effort and quickly design an effective vaccine to begin dealing with the pandemic. There was a very lively Q&A which covered the stupidity of the anti-vax social media campaign and one particular US president, and she talked freely about the work her team do in the areas of fighting TB and malaria. This was a truly fascinating and insightful evening which Marion had begun by recommending a book: the best-selling 1994 nonfiction thriller and TV series by Richard Preston which focusses particularly on the outbreak of ebolaviruses.

Photos and report – Mike Pearcy