Groundbreaking mRNA Scientist Whose Work Helped Develop Covid Vaccines

Kati Kariko Helped Shield the World From the Coronavirus

thought this was interesting and inspirational, this scientist persisted for decades of her career following up the idea of mRNA as a useful therapeutic, always following her ideas and the science even when positions were hard to secure and grant money was thin on the ground... and because she persisted the applications towards vaccines were seen and finally utilized now, when we really needed them.

i'm aware opinions will differ on whether these vaccines are necessary (or whether they are even vaccines lol), with this topic. not starting this thread to debate that and if it would be more appropriate in the science forum i'm fine with it being moved. just thought it was very neat how someone with a vision can spend their life working on it and finally see it pay off and do some good.

a reply to: fiverx313

Scientific research in the minds of those who devote their lives to it is always spun as some kind of humanity saving quest.

Like folk who defend the Atom bomb and claim it saved countless lives by bringing the war with Japan to an end. Tell that to the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Another example:

Thomas Midgley dramatically produced a container of tetraethyl lead - the additive in question - and washed his hands in it.

"I'm not taking any chance whatever," Midgley declared. "Nor would I... doing that every day."

Modern scientists are literally bought and paid for by the industries they serve. Just like Midgley was a shill for the Automotive industry, the Pharmaceutical industry has many experts to roll out.

a reply to: Grenade

in general i do believe in applying healthy skepticism to everything, including science, and availing yourself of a thorough reading of all available evidence... but i don't think your take really applies here, to be honest.

a reply to: fiverx313

Time will tell just as it has throughout the chequered past of scientific "advancement".

You want me to take Fauci's word of what a great scientist she is because that's all that article offers, a little grandstanding on her part, some virtue signalling and absolutely no scientific data on the technology at all.

"Dr. Langer hoped to use mRNA to treat patients who developed blood clots following brain surgery, often resulting in strokes. His idea was to get cells in blood vessels to make nitric oxide, a substance that dilates blood vessels, but has a half-life of milliseconds. Doctors can’t just inject patients with it.

He and Dr. Kariko tried their mRNA on isolated blood vessels used to study strokes. It failed. They trudged through snow in Buffalo, N.Y., to try it in a laboratory with rabbits prone to strokes. Failure again."

Dr. Weissman told her he wanted to make a vaccine against H.I.V. “I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I can do it,’” Dr. Kariko said.

Despite her bravado, her research on mRNA had stalled. She could make mRNA molecules that instructed cells in petri dishes to make the protein of her choice. But the mRNA did not work in living mice.

“Nobody knew why,” Dr. Weissman said. “All we knew was that the mice got sick. Their fur got ruffled, they hunched up, they stopped eating, they stopped running.”


These quotes should be enough to realise this mRNA approach can be used for nefarious purposes.

Also, you want me to trust someone who relies on these companies for its funding:

"Eventually, though, two biotech companies took notice of the work: Moderna, in the United States, and BioNTech, in Germany. Pfizer partnered with BioNTech, and the two now help fund Dr. Weissman’s lab."

All i see is this person patting themselves on the back without a single long term study into any of the treatments either animal or human. So we are the experiment and the guinea pig.

Probably should wait some time before giving her my gratitude.

originally posted by: Grenade
Probably should wait some time before giving her my gratitude.

you are welcome to wait as long as you like. certainly many things can be turned to nefarious purposes, or to good. certainly many successes are preceded by dozens of failures.

i feel gratitude for this scientist's persistence, thus my desire to share her story. perhaps as time tells the tale of this advancement you will be able to decide how you feel about it.

a reply to: fiverx313

Perhaps, i wont hold my breath, nor restrict it with a mask in the mean time.

You're asking me to take the word and respect someone who works for the very companies who manufacture the treatments. Companies with a rather poor record of producing drugs solely for profit even when they are clearly not fit for purpose.

originally posted by: Grenade
Perhaps, i wont hold my breath, nor restrict it with a mask in the mean time.

cool, you do you. i'll give you a six feet berth or wider in the meantime

a reply to: fiverx313

Yeah, i keep forgetting i'm a second class citizen who should be isolated and quarantined simply because i might be carrying a virus even tho i appear to be in perfect health.

To be honest i'm glad i can now identify neurotic fools as they hide behind masks and cross the road through fear of an invisible illness. Saves a lot of time and effort building relationships with people who turn out to be nothing more than mindless and faceless zombies of the system.

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: fiverx313

Yeah, i keep forgetting i'm a second class citizen who should be isolated and quarantined simply because i might be carrying a virus even tho i appear to be in perfect health.

kind of a far jump from 'i'm not going to come very very close to you in public' to 'you are a second class citizen who etc etc the things you said'.

to me, you're not wearing a mask so you are possibly exhaling more virus around you than if you were masked, so i'm giving you your personal space so i don't get into that... and also if i am infected then there might be some virus escaping my mask area too that would waft into your breathe holes. not an indictment of your character, just something i'd do to protect us both. same if you were smoking a cig, i don't want to breathe that either. but you do you!

ETA in response to what you ETA'd -- there is no need to be insulting. reasonable people can disagree.

a reply to: fiverx313

So you modify your behaviour toward people based on fear, speculation and conjecture, solely influenced by their attire.

Way to judge.

Thankfully i don't need friends like that.

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: fiverx313

So you modify your behaviour toward people based on fear, speculation and conjecture, solely influenced by their attire.

Way to judge.

Thankfully i don't need friends like that.

well, i wasn't offering... lol

i try not to judge based on attire... but a mask over your face is not a style choice.

if you're going to continue to be insulting, cast aspersions, and pre-suppose what i think... i think we've reached the limits of useful discussions. thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, it was definitely interesting.

a reply to: fiverx313

I find it insulting you regard me as some kind of danger to your health because i'm not wearing a totally ineffective scrap of cloth over my mouth.

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: fiverx313

I find it insulting you regard me as some kind of danger to your health because i'm not wearing a totally ineffective scrap of cloth over my mouth.

okay, i'm sorry you feel that way. it's not personal. you could be infected and not know it, and masks do offer some protection against that. that is purely where i'm coming from there.

a reply to: fiverx313

I'm not insulting you at all. I'm giving you the truth which appears to cause you offence. It does hurt sometimes.

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: fiverx313

I'm not insulting you at all. I'm giving you the truth which appears to cause you offence. It does hurt sometimes.

i'm not offended, i'm just not really seeing a point in this discussion if personal attacks are all you have to offer. this isn't the mud pit.

a reply to: fiverx313

They offer no protection. This virus is everywhere and masks only create a hive around your respiratory organs. People wear a mask as they float around the supermarket without gloves touching items 100 people in the logistical chain have handled before them then touch the mask, adjust it, remove it, put in their pockets and various other unsanitary behaviour then expect that to stop viral particles which are formed around the 100nm scale. I believe the aerosol filtration efficiency at those scales of the most common masks is non existent. For example the N95 masks being touted are only effective down to 300nm.

a reply to: fiverx313

I don't see any personal attacks. I generalised about mask wearers, maybe you took this as personal once you realised the foolishness this behaviour suggests.

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: fiverx313

They offer no protection. This virus is everywhere and masks only create a hive around your respiratory organs. People wear a mask as they float around the supermarket without gloves touching items 100 people in the logistical chain have handled before them then touch the mask, adjust it, remove it, put in their pockets and various other unsanitary behaviour then expect that to stop viral particles which are formed around the 100nm scale. I believe the aerosol filtration efficiency at those scales of the most common masks is non existent. For example the N95 masks being touted are only effective down to 300nm.

well, viral particles travel in moist droplets, so mark that down. infections from surfaces have been shown to be a much lower risk.

and this thread is not about any of those things, amazingly enough.

there's a dozen threads or more where you can post your anti-mask-anti-vaccine-anti-virus whatever. are you just haunting this one because no one else is responding when you do this? because that does seem like an effective tactic that i'm going to employ immediately.

a reply to: fiverx313

I'm responding to your questions and accusations.

I'll let you get back to your echo chamber.

Grenade:

Like folk who defend the Atom bomb and claim it saved countless lives by bringing the war with Japan to an end. Tell that to the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Indeed they did save countless lives, not only in the time period of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also in the years, decades following. If the nukes had not been used then, they would most certainly have been used between two adversaries who saw each other as enemies for decades following the 2nd world war.

All the atomic tests gave data as to the power and destructive force of nuclear weapons, but Hiroshima and Nagasaki gave data on the human toll. It brought an understanding of the immensity and scale of the lethality of nuclear weapons, and to the consequences to the world in general.

I'm not defending the use of the two nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities, but it is a fact, those bombings did save lives both then and throughout the decades following.