Andrew Pollard was in a French taxi when he realisedwhat was coming.On his way to a meeting to present his group’sresearch on typhoid, he happened to share a ride tothe airport with John Edmunds of the UK ScientificAdvisory Group for Emergencies, and they discusseda new virus emerging in China.“He had a fairly catastrophic view of what was likelyto happen to the world from that point,”says Pollard.“That was an incredibly chilling moment because Irealised that our lives were going to changecompletely during 2020. Straight away I was thinkingthat we needed a vaccine.”A multi-award winner, Pollard has become one of thefaces of the world’s pandemic vaccine effort. As chairof the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination andImmunisation and the European Medicines Agency’sscientific advisory group on vaccines, he knew betterthan anyone the size of the task ahead. But, as anexperienced climber (he was deputy leader of thesuccessful 1994 British Mount Everest MedicalExpedition), he knows that mountains are there tobe conquered.