Back

Recently, I had conversations with 2 people who turned out to be vaccine skeptics. They stopped getting #COVID vaccines after their first jab or two. So, I told them about the 30+ year history behind mRNA vaccine development. That it has been (and continues to be) worked on for treating cancer as well as for other diseases. And that mRNA vaccines were part-way developed for #SARS during the 2002-2004 outbreak (but work stopped because the infection petered out for various reasons) and for Zika. And that when the pandemic came along, most of the pieces of for creating an #mRNA #vaccine for COVID were already in place -- which is why the the vaccines came out relatively quickly. And that they underwent clinical trials before they were approved for release.
Both conversations ended with "Wow, I didn't know any of that. You've given me something to think about."
I'll take it as a win.
Sometimes it's #history more than #science that can help get a message across.

Sources:
1.Timeline: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/decades-making-mrna-covid-19-vaccines
2. One of the best summaries of the mRNA vaccine and its history. https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/10/the-story-of-mrna-how-a-once-dismissed-idea-became-a-leading-technology-in-the-covid-vaccine-race/

#publichealth @medmastodon #medmastodon #IDmastodon