Ari Daniel

That's right.

These samples have helped Penny and her team piece together a detailed portrait of the virus over the years, how it infects, how it hides, and how much it changes across different parts of the world, and even within a single individual.

This research has also helped fight other diseases, including COVID-19, RSV, and cancer.

And yet, despite all that, Nate, Penny actually spent much of last year worrying that it might all amount to nothing.

Why?

Well, because just when she and her colleagues were on the brink of an innovative HIV vaccine trial across Africa, the bottom dropped out.

Linda Gale Becker directs the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation in South Africa.

That's a vivid description.

But the team, they steeled their resolve.

They knew the science was sound and the need was urgent.

They insisted on finding a way forward.

Well, to explain what was going on, we have to kind of rewind to about a year ago in early 2025 to a meeting that was held in Zanzibar.

Have you?

Well, so you know it's a tropical archipelago off the east coast of Africa.

So, as you so kindly pointed out with your lyrics, very far.

And when Penny was there with her hundred or so colleagues for that meeting, she says it was just crazy hot.

The gathering took place in a hotel perched on the edge of a brilliant blue ocean.

There were researchers and clinicians from across Africa, and then there were the international scientific advisors.

What money are we talking about here?

How much?