With COVID, the science of mRNA proved its value almost immediately. On January 11, 2020, Chinese researchers published the genetic sequence of the virus. Within forty-eight hours, Moderna’s mRNA vaccine recipe was finalized. By late February, batches of the vaccine had been shipped to Bethesda, Maryland, for clinical trials. By December, it was approved—the fastest vaccine development in history. Today, several billion mRNA vaccines have been shipped.29 In 2023, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, who struggled for years to get a dollar of funding from the NIH, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology
...more
