Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, An African America Woman, Key Scientist of Covid-19 Vaccine
How one weekend gave rise to the Moderna Vaccine from six years of testing Covid strains
During the recent townhall meeting presented by MSNBC where Dr. Fauci, other medical professionals, President Biden, journalists, community participant's, and a special guest, Dr. Corbett, shared information about the pandemic, where we were, where we are and where we are going. Dr. Corbett, as a special guest, toward the end of the meeting, educated the public regarding the origin of the Moderna vaccination, its effectiveness and its intended purpose.
All was spearheaded by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and a constant presence on TV during the cornovirus pandemic, even during very stressful time due to politics usurping scientific facts.
The Moderna vaccine has a 94 to 95% efficacy against clinical disease and almost 100% efficacy against serious disease that are shown to be clearly safe. The vaccine was developed in an institute’s vaccine research center by a team of scientists led by Dr. Barney Graham and his close colleague, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, or Kizzy Corbett. Dr. Corbett, an African American scientist stands at the forefront with her contribution in developing the Moderna vaccine.
Dr. Corbett, an expert who spearheaded the countdown and global race for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, goes down in history as a major player who was instrumental in developing a vaccination combating the coronavirus pandemic. Her additional credits include being one of the National Institutes of Health’s leading scientists behind the government’s search for a vaccine and part of the NIH Team that worked with Moderna, a pharmaceutical company that developed one of the two mRNA vaccines with 90% effectiveness, during the same period that Pfizer produced their vaccine.
Prior to these vaccines, 300,000 died from the virus, to date 580,000 have died from the virus or complications from the virus and 15 million people have been infected in the United States.
Everyday was a living nightmare for friends, family and associates to hear of so many deaths near and far. Morgues were overfilled, no place to store bodies, funerals permitted few attendees and hospitals over run to the max.
While Dr. Corbett stands as a prominent leader and founder of the Moderna vaccine, she was a force to be reckoned with taking on the biggest challenge of her professional career. Even during her college days, she was a force to be heard from as she was selected to participate in Project SEED, a program for gifted minority students that allowed her to study chemistry in labs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and eventually landed a full ride to the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She was a history maker from early on and today is billed nationally and internationally as a history maker with inventor appended to her name and list of impeccable credentials. Dr. Corbett’s journey begun with summers at laboratories and summer internship at the NIH, the now home of the coronavirus vaccine via her hands.
UNC-Chaple Hill where she enrolled into a doctorate program began her work as a research assistance where she studied virus infections and received a PhD in microbiology and immunology. After joining the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center as a postdoctoral fellow in 2014, she begun her research with pathogens. Working on the virus, she put her six years of training to use and now renowned use.
From the first outbreak of the cornovirus in Wuhan, China, in early January, her team received emails to buckle up their efforts. Having been working with coronavirus she believed that a vaccine was possible. After unexpectedly discovering the Moderna vaccine, she advised her goal was not to develop the vaccine but to acquire an in-depth understanding in vaccine immune responses that could potentially develop a vaccine. She advised, “It was certainly doable if all the things and all the pieces of the puzzle came together.”
Dr. Corbett made headlines on March 3, 2020 as part of a team of scientist with the Moderna vaccine prior to the devastation that was to follow in America. Her recognition as a young and Black scientist gave much credence to other young scientists and people of color.
Dr. Corbett words spoke volume as a trailblazer. She stated, “I felt like it was necessary to be seen and to not be a hidden figure so to speak, that it was important to do that because the level of visibility that it would have to younger scientists and also to people of color who have often worked behind the scenes and essentially done the dirty work for these large efforts toward a vaccine, this person who looks like you has been working on this for several years and I also wanted it to be visible because I wanted people to understand that I stood by the work that I’d done for so long as well.”
Dr. Corbett being an outspoken critic regarding the manner in which people of color are portrayed wanted to change that perception and to encourage people of color to trust the vaccine. Knowing that the Black community had a justifiable distrust of the medical establishment, given the history how Black people have been used as guinea pigs in the name of science and reaped no benefits from their efforts and scarifies.
Once the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, Black communities had been infected and died at a disproportionate rate across the country compared to other ethnicities per the CDC. A poll was taken and showed that 55% of Black Americans said that if the vaccine was proven to be safe they would take it. To encourage Blacks to trust the vaccine developed by a Black female scientist, Dr. Fauci stated, “So, the first thing you might want to say to my African American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you’re going to be taking was developed by an African American woman, and that is just a fact.” His goal was to gain the trust of the Black communities by knowing that Dr. Corbett, a Black scientist, invented it.
In conclusion, Dr. Corbett not only made history as the founder of the Moderna vaccine but she has open doors for many young scientist and people of color to walk into. Her notoriety as a trailblazer speaks for itself nationally and internationally. The world owes Dr. Corbett for saving millions of lives globally.
For additional reads:
