- Today, free exhibition Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine opens at the Science Museum, exploring the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic;
- It examines the scientific breakthroughs which saw the identification of the virus’ genetic code and development of vaccines at record speed as well as the logistical challenges of their production and distribution;
- Injecting Hope forms part of a project with the National Council of Science Museums in India and the Guangdong Science Center in China, with similar exhibitions opening across the three countries this winter.
Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine
Until Sunday 7 January 2024
Ticketed, free
sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/injecting-hope
Today a significant new exhibition, Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine, opens at the Science Museum to explore the worldwide effort to develop vaccines at pandemic speed. In a first for the Science Museum Group, the exhibition is part of a major project which opens in three international venues this winter. The Group has partnered with the National Council of Science Museums in India and the Guangdong Science Center in China to highlight this global issue with a public programme in each country.
Injecting Hope at the Science Museum sets out the scientific principles underlying the vaccines’ creation, while sharing the behind-the-scenes work that accompanied their rapid development, production, transport and delivery. With breath-taking pieces by artists Angela Palmer and Junko Mori, visitors can visualise the virus which swept across the world. Meanwhile, over 100 objects illustrate the response to curb its impact, from the vial of the first COVID-19 vaccine administered worldwide and maps drawn up by the British Army to chart the deployment of these across England, to personal items belonging to Dame Kate Bingham, former Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce; Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, one of the creators of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine; and Dr Elisa Granato, the first volunteer vaccinated in the Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine’s clinical trial.
This major international programme builds on the fascinating and important work the Science Museum Group has undertaken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. From the COVID-19 collecting project, which acquired over 1,000 objects to create a permanent record of the pandemic, to hosting an NHS vaccination centre within the Science Museum, from publishing a popular blog series, to events such as the discussion about vaccine hesitancy, the Science Museum Group has been at the forefront of the latest developments in the pandemic, and the worldwide response.
Sir Ian Blatchford, Director and Chief Executive of the Science Museum Group, said: ‘Collaboration was, and remains, vital in combating this truly global issue. So I am delighted that this project enables us to build on the successes of our international tours such as Superbugs: The Fight For Our Lives with our partners in India and China, to engage an even wider audience in exploring the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.’
Vaccine Development
On entering the exhibition, visitors are taken back to January 2020, as the disease began to spread around the world. Like many in 2020, artist Angela Palmer became fascinated by knowing the virus better. Working with bioinformatics specialists, she engraved cross-sections of the genomic model of the COVID-19 virus by hand, layer by layer, onto glass sheets, to create a three-dimensional representation. The result, 2020: the Sphere that Changed the World, is a key part of the exhibition: an evocation of the virus that causes COVID-19, it renders the invisible visible.
When a scientist in China released the genetic code of the virus—translating it into an identifying string of RNA—analysis began immediately. Visitors are able to see the genetic code of the virus in its entirety. It was this that could be plugged into ongoing research and made it possible to call on existing data and established techniques to create the chance to develop a vaccine. This process of both innovating and adapting existing work enabled the fastest development of a vaccine in history.
From spending days plugging genetic code into laptops to create solutions, to taking their place on blue clinical chairs to test those answers, people are at the heart of the vaccine development story. The ‘Bad Elf’ T-shirt worn by Professor Tess Lambe as she designed a vaccine over a long weekend is on display alongside brightly coloured leggings with virus and bacteria motifs, part of the truly ‘viral’ outfit worn by Dr Elisa Granato as the first volunteer vaccinated in the Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine’s clinical trial. These moments of lightness were a crucial relief in the desperate urgency that haunted the creation of COVID-19 vaccines. Scientists worked round the clock to create possible solutions; people stepped up, as they have throughout history, to test their safety for the population. Their work and the vaccines they helped develop offered hope for a way out of the pandemic.
Vaccine Rollout
As vaccines showed their effectiveness in clinical trials, preparing to vaccinate billions required a shift from the laboratory to the factory. Vaccine production rates were ramped up to industrial scale. Huge vats of the vaccine were manufactured and both machinery and production line film footage will feature in Injecting Hope.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine vials are tiny and unassuming, but they made history when they were used for the first time worldwide as part of a mass COVID-19 vaccination programme. On Tuesday 8 December 2020, at University Hospital Coventry in the West Midlands, Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to receive the vaccine outside trial conditions, marking the start of the UK’s COVID-19 vaccination program. Her charity T-shirt is on display next to the syringe and vial which led her to make history—all now part of the Science Museum Group Collection.
Ensuring that the vaccines reached vulnerable demographics and areas of deprivation was a key challenge facing the rollout of the vaccination close to home. Maps drawn up by the British Army demonstrate how NHS England approached delivering jabs to a nation. Also on display are the notebooks of Dame Kate Bingham, Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce from May – December 2020, which are filled with notes from meetings about the development and deployment of vaccines. Material from the vaccination centre hosted at the Science Museum from March 2021, bring to life how 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were injected into arms throughout museums, mosques and stadiums across the UK. The exhibition also touches on the global inequality in the distribution of the vaccines, and some of the causes and solutions at play.
Future Pandemics
Finally, Injecting Hope considers a future with COVID-19 and explore how the response to the pandemic will be built upon for future preparedness. Medical monitoring and public health surveillance will remain essential as we move forwards. Key to this will be portable diagnostic devices, such as SAMBA II and the MinION Mk1C portable device for DNA and RNA sequencing, which are both on display. COVID-19 is unlikely to be the last pandemic we face. Preparing for the next is the ‘100 Days Mission’. Reported to the G7, this ‘Apollo Mission for the modern age’ is the aim to see accurate and approved rapid diagnostic tests, an initial regimen of therapeutics, and vaccines that are ready to be produced at global scale, all available, safe, effective and affordable within 100 days of a pandemic threat being verified.
Injecting Hope comes to a close with Junko Mori’s small-scale piece, Hope in Balance, giving visitors a moment to reflect on their own experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This silver and bronze sculpture once again makes the invisible visible, as it depicts the immune system’s response to a virus. The tea mug that belonged to Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, one of the creators of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, stands as a reminder of the intention for the next pandemic: ‘Keep Calm and Develop Vaccines.’
Injecting Hope International Project
The Science Museum is the first UK venue to host Injecting Hope before the free exhibition moves to the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester in Spring 2024, followed by other sites. In China, the Guangdong Science Center in Guangzhou – the largest science museum in the world—will be the first to host the exhibition. In India the first venue is the National Science Center in Delhi, which is accompanied by a mobile science exhibition visiting remote areas. Both China and India are anticipating a tour to four further venues nationally.
The overarching framework for the programme was developed collaboratively: as well as unpacking the background medical science and how innovative research was adapted to face this new challenge and curb the pandemic, visitors can explore the sheer logistical challenges behind implementing a massive vaccination programme. In each country the exhibitions are supplemented with content that focuses on aspects relevant to local audiences and the exhibitions will later embark on national tours until late 2025.
The Injecting Hope project, including the international tour and UK national tour, has been generously supported by Wellcome (Lead Funder). The Huo Family Foundation are also kindly supporting the national tour of the exhibition (Major Funder).
ENDS
Visitor Infomation
Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine
Until Sunday 7 January 2024
Science Museum, London
Ticketed, free
#InjectingHope
For more information, please contact Chloë Abley in the Press Office on 020 7942 4886 or Chloe.Abley@ScienceMuseum.ac.uk. You can download high-res images for the announcement.
About the Science Museum
The Science Museum is part of the Science Museum Group, the world’s leading group of science museums that share a world-class collection providing an enduring record of scientific, technological and medical achievements from across the globe. Over the last century the Science Museum, the home of human ingenuity, has grown in scale and scope, inspiring visitors with exhibitions covering topics as diverse as robots, code-breaking, cosmonauts and superbugs. 2020 marked a decade of transformation for the museum with the opening of the largest medical galleries in the world – Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries and Science City 1550-1800: The Linbury Gallery – the story of how London became a hub of discovery during 1550-1800. The Science Museum was named a winner of the prestigious Art Fund Museum of the Year prize for 2020. www.sciencemuseum.org.uk. Follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
About Wellcome
Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and we’re taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, global heating and infectious diseases.
About The Huo Family Foundation
The Huo Family Foundation is a grant-giving foundation based in London. Its mission is to support education, communities and the pursuit of knowledge. The Foundation’s current focus is in five main areas: education; neuroscience and psychology; public policy; the arts; and scientific research.
About Discover South Kensington
Discover South Kensington brings together the Science Museum and other leading cultural and educational organisations to promote innovation and learning. South Kensington is the home of science, arts and inspiration. Discovery is at the core of what happens here and there is so much to explore every day. discoversouthken.com
