Not only did the pair’s medical innovation save millions of lives (thanks partly to the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed). It enabled billions across the globe to resume normal life more quickly than they had any reason to expect. According to a typical development timeline, taking into account clinical trials, manufacturing, and regulatory approvals, a coronavirus vaccine might have been expected in 2033. Two were ready within a year.
The potential benefits extend well beyond battling the coronavirus. Many more lives might be saved by applying mRNA technology to notoriously hard-to-treat diseases such as pancreatic cancer. As one immunologist put it, “The sky’s the limit. … For whatever you want to correct, or whatever you want to treat, there could be an mRNA medicine — that’s the excitement.”
The Nobel for Ms. Kariko and Mr. Weissman provides a welcome counterpoint to the culture war that grew up around covid and the public health measures invoked to fight it. Pandemics throughout history have tended to spawn conspiracy theories or degenerate into every-man-for-himself behavior. Still, it is sobering to consider how quickly modern U.S. society polarized over what should have been dealt with as a common threat.
The share of Republicans who say they have “not too much” confidence in medical scientists or none at all rose from 12 percent in 2019 to 34 percent in 2021. Much of this was the result of disinformation or what some researchers call “negative polarization.” The more that Democrats were perceived as being favorable toward public health authorities and their recommendations, the more that Republicans would respond against them, and vice versa.
To be sure, some pandemic-era public health pronouncements, albeit made amid uncertainty and in good faith, appear to have gone too far. Health officials advocated school closures after there was evidence that children transmitted the virus less than adults and were at low risk of severe illness or death themselves. The academic and mental health effects on this “lost generation” are grave and likely to be long-lasting, disproportionately affecting the most marginalized communities. Meanwhile, the so-called lab leak theory of the coronavirus’s origins in China, initially dismissed as a hoax or, in infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci’s phrase, a “conspiracy theory,” is now taken seriously as a possible scenario, based on new evidence.
To prepare for future health crises, the country needs to take stock of how its institutions fell short, even in a largely successful pandemic response. None of this, however, justifies dismissing public health experts’ advice or lending the slightest credibility to anti-vax agitation, much less obscuring Ms. Kariko and Mr. Weissman’s achievement. What’s more, the two new Nobel laureates’ story is an inspiring one that reminds Americans of the enduring value of innovation and good old-fashioned perseverance. Ms. Kariko emigrated to the United States from communist Hungary in 1985 to pursue her research into genetic messenger technology. Allowed to leave her native country with only $100, she managed to hide $1,200 inside her daughter’s teddy bear.
It’s also a story about the proper role of skepticism in science; about the need to question consensus the right way. mRNA vaccines work by prompting the immune system to create antibodies against disease without introducing an altered or dead pathogen into the body. The pair’s interest in this concept ran counter to much conventional wisdom in their field. Initially, Ms. Kariko had trouble securing research funding and, as she put it, “was demoted four times.” Persisting, Ms. Kariko and Mr. Weissman responded with data, arguments and persuasion.
It’s little surprise, then, that when the two scientists heard the news that they had won the Nobel, skepticism was their first instinct. After all, it usually takes years for big discoveries to get the recognition they deserve. “I thought some anti-vaxxer was playing a joke on us or something like that,” Mr. Weissman recounted. Fortunately, it wasn’t a joke.
In the months and years to come, Americans might move on from covid, or relitigate blame for various missteps and conspiracies, real and imagined. But let’s take a moment out of our many disagreements to recognize that, while nothing’s perfect, some things are worth both believing in and celebrating.
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