This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine is a testament to the power of perseverance in science. Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman won the award for their discoveries that helped enable mRNA to be used as a drug or vaccine.
It is hard to imagine a more deserving Nobel Prize than one for an achievement credited with saving millions of lives. And we might never have gotten here if scientists like Kariko had not persisted in the face of doubt.
The quick development of the COVID-19 vaccines might make mRNA seem like an overnight success. Certainly, the speed with which the inoculations were developed is among the reasons some skeptics have given for doubting their efficacy.