JEREMY FARRAR BOOK EXTRACT
Burner phones and clandestine meetings: the inside story of Covid
exclusive
The first of our exclusive extracts from Sage adviser Jeremy Farrar’s new book, Spike — The Virus vs the People: The Inside Story
Jeremy Farrar: “It was clear that the Chinese authorities knew more than they were letting on.”
GETTY IMAGES; TOM JACKSON FOR THE TIMES
The Times
I was in an airport lounge on New Year’s Eve 2019 when my mobile rang. I was heading back to England from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I had been visiting the ebola vaccination centres in Rwanda across the politically fraught border region of North Kivu. I was absolutely knackered and looking forward to a couple of days at home in Oxford before heading back to the office.
I was scanning my phone when I saw a report of a mystery pneumonia spotted by doctors at a hospital in China. I sent a short text message to George Gao, head of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) in Beijing, and an old friend.
He phoned me back. Very
