The director of Doherty Institute for Infectious Diseases was out of office when the first official case of the novel coronavirus was declared. At the time, Sharon Lewin was hiking in remote Patagonia.

Then she got a call.

Her deputy, Mike Catton, confirmed that Doherty scientists were the first outside of China to grow the novel coronavirus in a lab.

This is the inside story of how that was achieved, and the split-second decision making that changed the course of the COVID-19 pandemic forever.