Four Out Of Five Voices In My Head Think You’re An Idiot Shirt
A mural depicting two figures of Saint Gennaro, patron of Naples, with a protective mask and an ampule with the label “The vaccine” written in Napolitan on a wall in the city’s downtown, on May 11, 2020. Salvatore Laporta—KONTROLAB/LightRocket via Getty ImagesIn the case of COVID-19, Moderna Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Mass., is making progress with just this kind of approach. There, researchers are working on a vaccine that uses the genetic material known as mRNA—which codes for proteins—extracted from SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.“mRNA is really like a software molecule in biology,” Moderna’s president, Dr. Stephen Hoge, told TIME’s Alice Park in late January, just as the pandemic was gaining momentum. “So our vaccine is like the software program to the body, which then goes and makes the [viral] proteins that can generate an immune response.” Other groups working on COVID-19 vaccines include CanSino Biologics, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, and a collaboration between Oxford University and AstraZeneca.Whether Moderna’s vaccine or others ultimately bring COVID-19 to heel, humanity’s centuries of success in developing vaccines means that today few people doubt that a safe, effective inoculation can be found. And as novel viruses continue to emerge, the vaccine arsenal will inevitably grow.
Four Out Of Five Voices In My Head Think You’re An Idiot Shirt
VACCINESDISEASESHIV/AIDSCHILDREN’S HEALTHPUBLIC HEALTHETHICSPOLIO VACCINESPHARMACEUTICALSMORTALITY RATESGLOBAL HEALTHThe gasping breath and distinctive sounds of whooping cough; the iron lungs and braces designed for children paralyzed by polio; and the devastating birth defects caused by rubella: To most Americans, these infectious scourges simultaneously inspire dread and represent obscure maladies of years past. Yet a little more than a century ago, the U.S. infant mortality rate was a staggering 20 percent, and the childhood mortality rate before age five was another disconcerting 20 percent. 1 Not surprisingly, in an epoch before the existence of preventive methods and effective therapies, infectious diseases such as measles, diphtheria, smallpox, and pertussis topped the list of childhood killers. Fortunately, many of these devastating diseases have been contained, especially in industrialized nations, because of the development and widespread distribution of safe, effective, and affordable vaccines.