Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service with me Rebecca Kesbby.

Today, how an overlooked area of science held the key to finding a vaccine for COVID.

There was a reason for the scepticism. Early experiments were not very promising.

For many years, they shunned the technology and they turn down partnerships.

Many hope it will help cure other diseases too. But in the meantime, it's still a struggle to get

the vaccine to everyone that needs it. Nothing will change unless there is the political will

and incentives to do so. Otherwise, we could be caught up in a cycle where vaccines that could be distributed in the area of most need

end up just going for booster programs.

The revolutionary science that's already saved hundreds of thousands of lives

and what it means for the future of medicine. That's here

on Business Daily from the BBC. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic came as a horrible shock to most of us.

Like a deadly tidal wave sweeping from one country to the next,

it changed everyday life for nearly everyone, at least for a time.

And not much more than a year ago, a vaccine seemed a long way off.

The Chinese city of Wuhan has been in effect sealed off

as the authorities try to stem the spread of a new

respiratory illness that's killed 17 people. All residents stay at home, orders the police, from

Naples in the south to the financial capital up in Milan. News of the restrictions spread as fast as the

virus.

Brazil has recorded more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours. By far, its worst day since the start of the pandemic. I must level with the British public. Many more families are going to

lose loved ones before their time. But within just a few months from the start of the pandemic, in what many consider to be a

medical miracle, a scientific breakthrough.

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