Research and science save lives– and make possible what previously seemed unattainable: the pandemic is impressive proof of this.
Because so far, the rule has been: Developing, testing and approving a vaccine, as well as building up appropriate manufacturing capacities, is more likely to pay off in decades.
The first COVID-19 vaccine, on the other hand, was available after just ten months – a staggering record.
Scientists have found that this is likely to be around 750,000 (!) People who have saved lives.
Flashback: At the end of the 19th century, it was possible to identify the pathogen that causes meningitis (meningitis). It took almost a hundred years for the first vaccine to become available. With polio, it was already faster. As soon as 50 years of research were over, there was also a vaccine here. Hepatitis B lasted about fifteen years, measles about ten. And the first COVID-19 vaccine?10 months. In words: TEN MONTHS.
These vaccines have not fallen from the sky. Neither are the mRNA vaccines – the first of their kind – which are an immensely clever way to train the immune system to fight pathogens against which it is otherwise powerless.
Because mRNA vaccines are nothing more than messengers. You have the information in your luggage that the immune system needs to upgrade. mRNA vaccines do not need killed viruses or virus particles. You also don't need active amplifiers. They're just a recipe: they tell the immune system, "Do this and do this. Then the pathogen will be able to do nothing or little to you." The pandemic shows that the recipe works.mRNA vaccines exist because there are people for whom hurdles are not hurdles, but provocation.
They don't want to resign themselves to the fact that a pathogen or a genetic defect makes people sick. They want to change that. And they believe it's possible.
Alstroem syndrome is also considered incurable. But is it? More likely, we just haven't found the solution yet. The history of medical breakthroughs is full of so-called incurable diseases.
Maybe we haven't tried decisively enough yet. The history of RNA vaccines shows that the unthinkable is possible.
# BECAUSE WE CAN