Over the last few months, immunity has become a hot topic in regards to the coronavirus crisis. Understanding our immune systems and utilising that knowledge might hold the key to combating the pandemic.

Hay Festival moved online this year due to the crisis, creating a programme that runs until the 31st May and features free live broadcasts and interactive events from more than 100 award-winning contributors. Author and leading immunologist Daniel Davis hosted Event 41 yesterday, discussing the scientific quest to understand how our immune system works – and how it is affected by stress, sleep, age and our state of mind. He explained how these discoveries are now unlocking a revolutionary new approach to medicine and well-being, and what we are discovering about our natural ability to cope with the covid-19 pandemic. An impressive 7,000 people logged in to listen to Daniel’s live talk which featured a Q & A session for audience members to ask their questions.

Daniel will also be chairing an event focusing on the field of vaccination today with four exceptional innovators discussing the world’s biggest medical challenges, and the scope and scale of vaccine development and its importance for global health.

If you missed any of the talks and would like to catch up, you can subscribe to the Hay Player, which has all of this year’s events and also has talks from previous festivals.

Daniel M. Davis was born on August 2nd, 1970 in London. He earned a BSc. in Physics from the University of Manchester in 1992 and PhD. in Physics in 1995, working with Prof. David Birch at Strathclyde University. As an Irvington Institute Postdoctoral Research Fellow, he studied molecular immunology with Prof. Jack Strominger in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. His book The Beautiful Cure was published by Bodley Head in 2018 and tells a dramatic story of our immune system, of detective work and discovery, of puzzles solved and of the mysteries that remain, of lives sacrificed and saved, introducing the reader to this revelatory new understanding of the human body and what it takes to be healthy.