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His Ideas 36 ~ Vaccination (2)

June 17, 2021

It was a great TV program. A Nobel Prize Medical Award winner, Shinya Yamanaka, had an interview with a medical scientist who created the RNA vaccine (they say 'mRNA', messenger RNA), which is used for Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines. Last year he read a book entitled "Novel Coronavirus ~7 Mysteries", which was recommended by Shinya Yamanaka. The author, a immunology specialist, wrote that there were about 300 companies that were competing to make vaccines for COVID-19. The companies used several types of vaccines that ranged from regular ones to new ones, like DNA vaccines and RNA vaccines. The new types of vaccines hadn't been successfully produced so far, as of September 3, 2020, the book stated. The book mentioned that for vaccination's approval, there are three stages of tests for humans: the first one takes at least one year; the second one, about one year; and, the third and last one, about two years. It reminded him that at that time a lot of specialists on TV answered in the interviews that 2 or 3 years (some specialist even said 4 or 5 years) were needed to make an approved vaccination for COVID-19. In the book, the author said that RNA vaccine would be rather faster than regular ones because of its simplicity, he called it a 'dream vaccine'. The scientist who created the "mRNA" vaccine was a Hungarian. She moved to the US with her family because in Hungary her experimental budget was cut, and couldn't continue to study about her specialty, RNA. In the US, her difficulties didn't vanish. The main stream in the medical research world was DNA, not RNA. She survived with her fellow researchers' help, letting her use their budget. And, the turning point came when Dr. Yamanaka found methods to create iPS cells artificially. Soon it was found that using RNA could help create iPS cells more efficiently. Her research then became highly sought after. She had done experimentations for a couple of decades. Her team developed new RNA vaccines for COVID-19 in about a year.   She said in the interview that some people said that she was a hero, but she wasn't. Heroes were people like doctors, nurses, food deliverers, etc. who risk their lives to help people. She said that she had just been experimenting in her laboratory. But, she said that she could be proud of one thing ~she never varied from her experimental pathway in any conditions, whether it was cuts in her budget, seeing others who were promoted in front of her, people who left her team, etc. ... She emphasized that there were so many researchers who were experimenting for basic science, which is a long and hard task, and we shouldn't forget about them. After the interview, Dr. Yamanaka revealed that he was amazed by her strong will toward her fundamental experiments and her selfless spirit. His Idea #36 : Vaccination   Now, vaccinations in this country were being accelerated. Recently, large number of vaccinations at big facilities were given by the Self Defense Forces. The government started to allow companies and universities which could gather a thousand people at a time, vaccinations. Some companies could give vaccinations to not only their workers, but the workers' families, their suppliers, etc. He liked this type of flexibility. As Mr. Yamanaka mentioned, in the current situation, wide-spread vaccination is not only best solution, it's the only solution. He hoped that all the citizens in the world could get vaccinations that were made with various people's efforts.

No.438



*immunology :免疫学
*range :範囲に及ぶ
*as of :時点で
*simplicity :単純さ
*experimental :実験の
*fellow :同僚
*sought after :引く手あまたの
*laboratory :実験室
*vary :変動する
*pathway :方針、行く道
*selfless :無私の