This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Batchel with Gregory Zuckerman. His new book is A Shot

to Save the World, the inside story of the life or death race for a COVID-19 vaccine.

All these men and women who are alerted in January of 2020, where do they come from?

We go first to Moderna, which is itself a combination of pursuits, anxieties, pride, accident.

We take Moderna and we come down to one man, Stefan Bansel, who's born in Marseille.

Gregory, this is an outsized personality. He's not a

scientist. How is it that Bancel comes to run the company called Moderna? What is his life's ambition?

What is his style? So, John, the reason I began writing this book is I became so fascinated by this guy, Bancel, and his firm,

and how unlikely it was that Moderna should be the one to step up and save millions of lives.

So Stefan Bancel, as you say, is not a scientist.

He's an engineer, Harvard MBA.

He becomes the CEO of this startup called Moderna.

And they're dedicated.

They're focused on developing messenger RNA, this molecule, using it to develop either

drugs or vaccines or both.

And for years, they struggle.

And for years, Stefan Bancel is hard on his employees.

He pushes them.

He drives them to the point where people

literally are collapsing. I write about it in the book in the parking lot, in the office, at home,

hitting their heads, being rushed to emergency rooms. They're trying to keep up with the guy

in there having difficulties. He fires people. He's hard on people. He's not very, especially complimentary.

...