COVID19 Vaccine: A Very Deep, Personal Meaning
A safe and effective vaccine has been developed to meet a public health threat, in months instead of a decade. It is the amazing confluence of molecular biology, medicine, and and influx of money, all colliding to install community immunity to a highly transmissible and potentially harmful virus. I receive my first shot today, the Moderna mRNA vaccine. I'll get it today at 5:40 pm at the Publix grocery store on 91st Street. For most this event marks the end of a threat to health, the potential to maybe rejoin others and life returning to normal. But to me it means something more. I t is another gorgeous application of a technology I have studied for almost a lifetime. I first learned of recombinant DNA technology in 1977. I was 10. The concept was always intriguing. It was amazing that we could potentially fix medical problems, correct genetic errors, enhance traits in plants.... simply my adjusting the basic instructions in the molecular blueprint. I get the shot in an h