So many of the media are declaring how quickly we managed to develop vaccines for the scourge of the 21^st Century, the COVID-19 pandemic.

And, to be honest, on the surface, that’s a fair observation.

But, let be bring back a controversy from the recent past.  Back in 2012, When President Obama (rightly) declared “You didn’t build that!”.  The whole sentence that started the controversy:  “Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”

(Despite the BS controversy, Obama was right on the money.  Every new technological development builds on some previous study or result.  And, we need a viable society to be able to produce these innovations and deliver them to those who need them.)

That pretty much sums up how we have been able to develop these mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV-2.  Since the SARS coronavirus crisis two decades ago, folks have been looking at the “spike” protein and trying to develop defenses to such viruses.

So, when this new variant, SARS-CoV-2, popped up in 2019, our research teams were already primed to jump into action. And, once the virus was mapped and publicly unveiled, researchers from around the world jumped into the fray.

(You do realize that COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2.  And, this new virus is VERY similar to SARS-CoV, the virus we called SARS virus.  [Hence, the “sequel’ type nomenclature.])

Amazingly, the first two vaccines with emergency approvals are relying on new technology.

But it’s NOT brand new. We knew about mRNA some 50 years ago. And, in the late1980s, folks began considering mRNA as a potential vaccine candidate. (Consider Vical Inc. way back in 1989.)   And, by 2005 [see, it wasn’t so fast after all] Drs. K Kariki and D Weissman (U Pennsylvania) had figured out how to program the RNA that it would not cause the body to be overwhelmed by inflammation.  It took more years of research to be able to protect the mRNA components to withstand attack by our body and survive.  (The current antiviruses are ensconced  in lipid nanoparticles.)  It’s just brand new that we can use such procedures for a vaccine.

Up until now, all of our vaccines have involved either inactivated or weakened viral components, injected into our body, hoping to spur on the immunologic responses to rid our body of the  disease.  (Think measles or polio.)

Using mRNA (messenger RNA) means we can synthesize genetic matter (mRNA) to convey instructions to direct our cellular DNA to make proteins.  Those proteins are to train the cell to recognize the viral spike and thereby eradicate it from the body.

And, even Operation Warp Speed that a certain individual wants us to believe was all his development… (Of course, that would be at least mostly untrue.  Although, we would wish it weren’t.)   This program was conceived long ago under President George W. Bush- as part of BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority), a takeoff on the  DARPA (Defense Advanced Research and Development Authority) concept that developed many of the newest and ‘bestest’ ideas being used by the DOD.

BARDA knew that this was going to be a terrible situation back in March- and that BigPharma wouldn’t rush in to make vaccines unless they knew this would be a long-standing issue. (No point in dumping millions on research for an epidemic that will fizzle out before any products hit the market- you know, the way TheDonald declared the virus would disappear in a heartbeat.).  So, the idea arose to fund the research to mitigate the risk.  (Here’s where TheDonald DID make a difference- he wanted to be able to be the ‘hero’ before the election, so he leaned hard to get the money spent.)  $14 billion was spent on this project!  (Note that Pfizer/BioNTech did NOT take any money for the vaccine development, as opposed to the other firms in the mix.  But, they did take money for the purchase of an ‘as-yet, not-developed’ vaccine. )

Oh- and the rapid process by which the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine were able to be submitted?  The second and third waves of the pandemic created a plethora of folks getting sick.  So, it became way easier to determine if the candidate vaccines actually worked in the real world!

Now, even though (I hope it’s not as full of BS as when the DOD used this term 5 decades ago) there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, we are not out of the tunnel.  (Wear your masks!)

You see, even with the development of these vaccines- seemingly overnight, we have no idea how long the immunity afforded by them will last, or whether those who already suffered from COVID-19 need a vaccine.

Fun times ahead.