Recalling the miracle of the COVID vaccine

By Dennis Archambault

As we are reminded that it’s time to plan for COVID and flu shots, it’s also a time to remember a miracle that occurred four years ago, in the depth of the pandemic. At the time, we were working all angles to prevent the spread of the disease through masking, spacing, and careful exposure to risks. Authority Health and other health agencies looked for opportunities to promote testing. There wasn’t an end in sight.

However, in Washington, some very bright scientists were working on a strategy for developing a COVID vaccine. It’s easy to overlook how uncertain that was. Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health and the National Human Genome Institute, recalled that moment: “Go with me back early 2020, as the worst pandemic in more than a century was spreading across the globe, and deaths in the United States were in the thousands every day. For me and hundreds of scientists who joined together during Operation Warp Speed, the most hopeful strategy was to develop a vaccine. We all worked to be sure that the large-scale trials were scrupulously conducted and that they involved a wide range of men and women of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.”

The goal set by the Food and Drug Administration was 50 percent efficacy, which is what flu vaccines achieve. Collins, who recently wrote about his experience in The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust,” admits that he didn’t think they would succeed, at least not in the critical time frame they were working with. Dr. Anthony Fauci had estimated that the effort would achieve the minimal FDA goal, and perhaps get as high as 70 percent. Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines made it to 90/95 percent efficacy in preventing illness and nearly 100 percent in preventing severe disease and death. Side effects were minimal. A remarkable achievement.

Collins was overcome with emotion as he spoke to the research team about what they accomplished. “It was a moment of profound relief.”  As many of us gratefully lined up in our cars for government-funded vaccines provided in outdoor venues, skeptics were promoting doubt. “Public distrust, driven by social media, cable news and even some politicians, reflected a host of concerns: whether COVID-19 was real, whether it was really all that serious, whether the vaccines were rushed, whether there were common and serious side effects that had been hidden, whether the mRNA would alter the recipient’s DNA, and whether companies had skirted the rules about safety.”

More than 50 million adult Americans denied vaccination.

To this day, there is doubt, and to some extent complacency, regardless of the fact many of us know people who have had bouts with the disease that sidelined them a week or more – people who have been vaccinated.

As we enter the immunization season, it’s helpful to remember the miracle that occurred four years ago that demonstrated what can occur when the best talent is mobilized around a single purpose.