The First Shots weaves together the vaccine-race conflicts among scientists and the rivalries among Washington power players that shaped 18 months of fear, resolve, and triumph. It traces the vaccine-race from infectious disease expert Michael Callahan, an American doctor secretly on the ground in Wuhan in January 2020 to gauge Disease X; to Robert (Dr. Bob) Kadlec, one of Operation Warp Speed's architects to Stephane Bancel of Moderna Therapeutics going toe-to-toe with Pfizer.