Vaccinologist Sarah Gilbert: ‘We need to be better prepared for a new pandemic’

Sarah Gilbert is a professor of vaccineology at Oxford's Jenner Institute and author, with Catherine Green, head of Oxford University's clinical biomanufacturing facility, of Vaxxers, a gripping narrative about developing the AstraZeneca vaccine that is wonderfully accessible and illuminating. Her husband and triplets live in Oxford.

There is a second wave of Covid-19. How much do you know about what the virus will do next, and how much do you know about how to prepare? Making a new version of the vaccine takes time and has to be tested and approved if a new sequence is to become dominant. The virus has been too quick and we have been going through waves. The vaccine can't be approved unless regulators can see the clinical data. Good protection against the disease is provided by the original vaccines used by developers.

We moved from vaccine production to licensure as quickly as possible after you answered the fear that the vaccine was produced too quickly. We worked very hard to cut out all the delays in the vaccine development process. It was possible because there was one project in the world that everyone cared about and regulators were able to remove obstacles in their process.

It was important to have as many options as possible because nobody knew what would work with the vaccine. It was wonderful that we had many successful vaccines. There were still shortages of vaccine production despite the fact that Pfizer, Moderna and other companies were licensed for emergency use early.

Your book is reassuring. I wonder if you agree that the vaccine-averse may be reacting to months of being told how to live, or not live, and be a wish to regain control? Some people don't want to bevaccinated because they don't trust the government and the government recommends it. I don't think that's a feature in the UK because people's views on government are recognised by the National Health Service A lot of the hesitancy among younger people was due to the fact that they were receiving misinformation.

If you’ve been through having triplets, you realise that when the chips are down and you have to do something, you can

Is there a chance that Covid-19 could return as a more severe variant? If it continues to become milder, it could become a more serious disease again.

Is it possible that we are over reliant on the vaccine's effectiveness in the UK, and that we are no longer wearing face masks? I haven't stopped wearing a mask yet. I followed the guidance for about one year. There hasn't been any guidance lately. Without a mask, I have traveled on the tube. I got Covid about a week ago. It was like having a cold and I wasn't worried. I was fine after a few days.

If you have been through having triplets, you know that you can do something when you need to. When there is a need to find the strength and energy to get a job done, people do more than they expected.

We got the efficacy result in November 2020. There were different levels of effectiveness in different parts of the trial. The people had been working for a long time and were tired. The people leading the project went into a lot of interviews. I did two hours of back-to-back 15 minute interviews. Having to explain the result was a challenge.

I would do it whenever I had time. I dictated a portion of it as I walked. It's nice to walk to work when the weather is nice and nobody can interrupt me.

It was hard for your family to be consumed by work. It's difficult to switch off. I have to improve at that. They did everything they could to help me.

I had the title from 2010 but now have an endowed chair, it must be a pleasure to have that recognition. None of the people who work for me have secure jobs, so I need to raise money to keep them in post. I am very busy withRecruiting staff for my research group on vaccines that are not for Covid and on vaccine technology We have lost a lot of staff who are tired and no longer willing to work for a long time. I don't think the funding will get better in the short term.

What do you think of the Barbie doll named after you? I can show you a bespectacled Barbie with a face mask dangling from her hand and a baby penguin at London Zoo. Are you able to see? She is a good likeness and I like her mask. I fed the baby penguin some fish after visiting it.

You have a mug with a quote. The person who gave it to you was a secret santa. The mug is in a museum. I want you to know that my daughter embroidered the same message on this little sampler.

I have read that you keep calm and garden when you can, but how is your garden doing? Weeds have overtaken it. Because of being busy all my life, I designed the garden to be low-maintenance, but it requires some intervention and recently hasn't had any.

A new epidemic is seen in your book as a certainty. We need to be better prepared in a lot of different areas. We know that there are viruses that can cause disease, but we don't have a vaccine against them. If there is an outbreak, we need to have the vaccine ready so that we can deal with it.

• The paperback edition of Vaxxers was published by Hodder. Go to guardianbookshop.com to order your copy. Delivery charges can be applied.