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In this updated look at the Covid-19 vaccine we examine its rollout, one year ago. Now with the Omicron variant ravaging the world, getting the vaccine is more important than ever. Stubborn resistance continues...and Covid variations will continue to happen unless we get everyone vaxxed.
How did that COVID-19 vaccine happen so fast?
Years, even decades of research brought us to yesterday, the initial rollout of a vaccine for COVID-19, the most disastrous public health calamity in modern times.
In layman's terms, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are all about genetics, DNA, and cell biology. The vaccine utilizes our genetic processes and what they do...which is to create life in our bodies and in all living things. We lay people have known about genetics since high school, when we studied a little bit about Gregor Mendel and his experiments with peas. Mendel discovered the basic principles of heredity and laid the mathematical foundation of the science of genetics.
What James D. Watson and Francis Crick discovered by 1953, and which revolutionized biology and medicine, was how each of our 30 trillion cells (except for mature red blood cells) is able to pack inside its nucleus the 20,000 genes that serve as the instruction manual for us and for all living things.
DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, is the material from which the 46 chromosomes in each cell's nucleus are formed. DNA contains the codes for the body's approximately 20,000 genes, which govern all aspects of cell growth and inheritance. Watson and Crick discovered that DNA has a double helix structure--two intertwined strands resembling a spiraling ladder. A gene is a distinct section of that DNA and contains the codes for producing specific proteins involved in our body function. In a very short-handed description, genes send information to single-strand structures called messenger RNA (messenger ribonucleic acid). It is the messenger RNA that leaves the cell's nucleus and begins the process of protein building, the essential work of life.
What the scientists and doctors at Pfizer accomplished was to harness the messenger RNA of the Corona-19 virus, which is the active agent of the of the corona virus. The scientists made a synthetic copy of the virus's messenger RNA instead of using a section of living, or dead, virus as has been typically done in previous vaccines. Also, it has been reported that the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines are less risky to the body and easier to make in mass doses...qualities much needed in an unprecedented pandemic.
As noted scientist and Nobel laureate Leon Cooper said, our investment in basic scientific research must be generous and ongoing. Advances that led to the creation of the personal computer, for example, relied on previous research on transistors, which relied on previous research in basic physics. Had the revolution in our understanding of genes and cellular biology not stood where it is, these vaccines, providing hope to a despairing world, would not have been possible.
Contents
FOREWORD: HOW A TINY VIRUS CHANGED THE WORLD…..1. LET'S GET BACK TO NORMAL, WHEREVER POSSIBLE….2. THIS IS NOT THE SEASONAL FLU-- IT'S MUCH MORE DANGEROUS….. 3. OUR LUNGS AND COVID-19: A CLOSER LOOK…..4. HOW DID THE COVID-19 VACCINES GET DEVELOPED SO FAST?.....5. THE VACCINES ARE SAFE: THE ROLE OF CLINICAL TRIALS…..6. IMMUNITY: A SMART SYSTEM AND ITS SECRETS…..7. A POWERFUL ACHIEVEMENT: DR. JONAS SALK CONQUERS POLIO…. 8. TAKE PART IN HISTORY...BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE HAPPEN….. 9. SCIENCE SAVES MONEY, SAVES LIVES…..10. THE AGE OF THE GENOME BODES WELL FOR HUMAN HEALTH…..11. FAQS ABOUT THE COVID-19 VACCINES EPILOGUE: LIVING UNDER THE UNIQUE STRESS OF A PANDEMIC
Online review:
"You might have read articles here and there about the Covid vaccines and the miracle of their development in less than a year. But here in book form, all the ingredients of this remarkable story are brought together in one place by author Dave Balog. Mr. Balog has a medical background, but he writes in clear, easy-to-understand prose that any reader will appreciate.
"Specifically, fundamental questions about the virus and the vaccines are answered in the book such as how did the vaccines get developed in record time, how was safety ensured -- particularly given the speed involved -- and the implications not only for the management of future pandemics, but also for overall public health in general.
"Mr. Balog's book is titled, "Get The Covid-19 Vaccine ASAP." Many people, but by no means everyone, know this. The nine chapters, however, explain why vaccination is so urgent in the face of a still evolving disease, the dimensions of which are detailed therein in no uncertain terms."
About the author
David Balog, a freelance science/medical writer, served as an editor at the Charles A. Dana Foundation from 1995-2006. There he worked for William Safire, language columnist for the New York Times. David created, wrote, and edited the Dana Sourcebook of Brain Science through four editions. More than 50,000 copies were distributed to elementary schools, middle schools, colleges and to professionals and the general public. He worked with leading brain scientists and doctors, including Nobel laureates. David was also a contributing editor of the Dana Sourcebook of Immunology. and has created the Healing the Brain series of books and videos. Please visit www.HealingTheBrainBooks.Com to learn more. David is a graduate of Hamilton College, where he received a BA in History.
The New Journalism...by Book
TRUMP: "DANGEROUS MAN, DANGEROUS PRESIDENT"
FIGHTING FOR PROGRESS
INFRASTRUCTURE, DEBT, AND TRILLIONS IN SPENDING: WHERE CONGRESS STANDS ON KEY DEADLINES
HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP TO PUT THE SCREWS TO PHARMA-BACKED CENTRISTS SO DEMOCRATS CAN REDUCE PRICES OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
Healing the Brain: Stress, Trauma and Development
“Easy to read. Difficult to put down.”--Micheal J. Colucciello, Jr., NY State pharmaceutical researcher, retired.
“David Balog takes a subject fraught with difficulty and makes it simple and accessible to everyone. The book goes a long way in helping one understand how and why and in what ways stress affects how we live and cope. Invaluable.”--Jessica Hudson, former president, National Association of Former Foster Children
THE ONLY LANGUAGE MCCONNELL UNDERSTANDS IS POWER. DEMOCRATS MUST ACT ACCORDINGLY.
LIARS & TRAITORS
RIGHT-WING LAWYER PENNED 6-PAGE MEMO ON HOW PENCE COULD HAND THE 2020 ELECTION TO TRUMP, BY NOT ACCEPTING SLATES OF ELECTORS
TRUMP-ERA WHITE HOUSE MEMO SHOWS TRUMP TEAM KNEW CLAIMS AGAINST DOMINION VOTING MACHINES WERE A LIE
SMARTMATIC SOFTWARE SMEARS WERE ALSO A LIE – THEIR SOFTWARE WAS IN USE IN EXACTLY ONE COUNTY IN 2020
FLASHBACK NOV 2020: RUDY GIULIANI WORKED HARD TO DO RUSSIA’S DISINFORMATION WORK FOR THEM
COLBERT INTERVIEWS WOODWARD, COSTA
NY TIMES ON REPUBLICAN VOTER SUPRESSION
A "HEIGHTENED SENSE OF THREAT"
Healing the Brain: Stress, Trauma and Development
“Easy to read. Difficult to put down.”--Micheal J. Colucciello, Jr., NY State pharmaceutical researcher, retired.
“David Balog takes a subject fraught with difficulty and makes it simple and accessible to everyone. The book goes a long way in helping one understand how and why and in what ways stress affects how we live and cope. Invaluable.”--Jessica Hudson, former president, National Association of Former Foster Children
BORDER CRISIS
SEC. MAYORKAS: DHS TO OPEN INVESTIGATION AFTER IMAGES SHOW AGENTS ON HORSEBACK GRABBING MIGRANTS
REPUBLICAN WAR ON WOMEN
SUPREME COURT TO HEAR RESTRICTIVE MISSISSIPPI ABORTION LAW ON DECEMBER 1
ALAN BRAID PREFORMED A TEXAS ABORTION IN VIOLATION OF TEXAS LAW
White House/It's Do or Die Time for Biden
CONGRESS IS BACK – WITH A MOUNTAIN OF WORK TO DO
CONGRESS RETURNS TO WORK FACING MAJOR DECISIONS ON VOTING RIGHTS, INFRASTRUCTURE, & THE DEBT LIMIT
BIDEN – AND DEMOCRATS – ENTIRE AGENDA HANGS ON ONE PAIR OF BILLS
FIVE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE DEBT CEILING FIGHT
JOE MANCHIN GOT THE VOTING BILL HE WANTED. TIME FOR HIM TO MAKE SURE IT GETS PASSED.
Healing the Brain: Stress, Trauma and Development
“Easy to read. Difficult to put down.”--Micheal J. Colucciello, Jr., NY State pharmaceutical researcher, retired.
“David Balog takes a subject fraught with difficulty and makes it simple and accessible to everyone. The book goes a long way in helping one understand how and why and in what ways stress affects how we live and cope. Invaluable.”--Jessica Hudson, former president, National Association of Former Foster Children
THE REVOLVING DOOR
REVOLVING CORRUPTION: FMR. SENS. HEITKAMP AND DONNELLY’S RURAL VOTER PROJECT TIED TO MEDICARE FOR ALL OPPONENTS
THE PARTISAN & ILLIGITIMATE SUPREME COURT
THE REPUBLICAN-LED SENATE KNEW ABOUT KAVANAUGH’S PARTISAN HISTORY & CONFIRMED HIM ANYWAY.
Credit, RandiRhodes.com
In this updated look at the Covid-19 vaccine we examine its rollout, one year ago. Now with the Omicron variant ravaging the world, getting the vaccine is more important than ever. Stubborn resistance continues...and Covid variations will continue to happen unless we get everyone vaxxed.
How did that COVID-19 vaccine happen so fast?
Years, even decades of research brought us to yesterday, the initial rollout of a vaccine for COVID-19, the most disastrous public health calamity in modern times.
In layman's terms, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are all about genetics, DNA, and cell biology. The vaccine utilizes our genetic processes and what they do...which is to create life in our bodies and in all living things. We lay people have known about genetics since high school, when we studied a little bit about Gregor Mendel and his experiments with peas. Mendel discovered the basic principles of heredity and laid the mathematical foundation of the science of genetics.
What James D. Watson and Francis Crick discovered by 1953, and which revolutionized biology and medicine, was how each of our 30 trillion cells (except for mature red blood cells) is able to pack inside its nucleus the 20,000 genes that serve as the instruction manual for us and for all living things.
DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, is the material from which the 46 chromosomes in each cell's nucleus are formed. DNA contains the codes for the body's approximately 20,000 genes, which govern all aspects of cell growth and inheritance. Watson and Crick discovered that DNA has a double helix structure--two intertwined strands resembling a spiraling ladder. A gene is a distinct section of that DNA and contains the codes for producing specific proteins involved in our body function. In a very short-handed description, genes send information to single-strand structures called messenger RNA (messenger ribonucleic acid). It is the messenger RNA that leaves the cell's nucleus and begins the process of protein building, the essential work of life.
What the scientists and doctors at Pfizer accomplished was to harness the messenger RNA of the Corona-19 virus, which is the active agent of the of the corona virus. The scientists made a synthetic copy of the virus's messenger RNA instead of using a section of living, or dead, virus as has been typically done in previous vaccines. Also, it has been reported that the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines are less risky to the body and easier to make in mass doses...qualities much needed in an unprecedented pandemic.
As noted scientist and Nobel laureate Leon Cooper said, our investment in basic scientific research must be generous and ongoing. Advances that led to the creation of the personal computer, for example, relied on previous research on transistors, which relied on previous research in basic physics. Had the revolution in our understanding of genes and cellular biology not stood where it is, these vaccines, providing hope to a despairing world, would not have been possible.
Contents
FOREWORD: HOW A TINY VIRUS CHANGED THE WORLD…..1. LET'S GET BACK TO NORMAL, WHEREVER POSSIBLE….2. THIS IS NOT THE SEASONAL FLU-- IT'S MUCH MORE DANGEROUS….. 3. OUR LUNGS AND COVID-19: A CLOSER LOOK…..4. HOW DID THE COVID-19 VACCINES GET DEVELOPED SO FAST?.....5. THE VACCINES ARE SAFE: THE ROLE OF CLINICAL TRIALS…..6. IMMUNITY: A SMART SYSTEM AND ITS SECRETS…..7. A POWERFUL ACHIEVEMENT: DR. JONAS SALK CONQUERS POLIO…. 8. TAKE PART IN HISTORY...BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE HAPPEN….. 9. SCIENCE SAVES MONEY, SAVES LIVES…..10. THE AGE OF THE GENOME BODES WELL FOR HUMAN HEALTH…..11. FAQS ABOUT THE COVID-19 VACCINES EPILOGUE: LIVING UNDER THE UNIQUE STRESS OF A PANDEMIC
Online review:
"You might have read articles here and there about the Covid vaccines and the miracle of their development in less than a year. But here in book form, all the ingredients of this remarkable story are brought together in one place by author Dave Balog. Mr. Balog has a medical background, but he writes in clear, easy-to-understand prose that any reader will appreciate.
"Specifically, fundamental questions about the virus and the vaccines are answered in the book such as how did the vaccines get developed in record time, how was safety ensured -- particularly given the speed involved -- and the implications not only for the management of future pandemics, but also for overall public health in general.
"Mr. Balog's book is titled, "Get The Covid-19 Vaccine ASAP." Many people, but by no means everyone, know this. The nine chapters, however, explain why vaccination is so urgent in the face of a still evolving disease, the dimensions of which are detailed therein in no uncertain terms."
About the author
David Balog, a freelance science/medical writer, served as an editor at the Charles A. Dana Foundation from 1995-2006. There he worked for William Safire, language columnist for the New York Times. David created, wrote, and edited the Dana Sourcebook of Brain Science through four editions. More than 50,000 copies were distributed to elementary schools, middle schools, colleges and to professionals and the general public. He worked with leading brain scientists and doctors, including Nobel laureates. David was also a contributing editor of the Dana Sourcebook of Immunology. and has created the Healing the Brain series of books and videos. Please visit www.HealingTheBrainBooks.Com to learn more. David is a graduate of Hamilton College, where he received a BA in History.
I did not know then that my boss at the Dana Foundation, William Safire, had close ties to Trump and was part of the infamous "favor bank" of city power brokers. In this club, no money was exchanged -- just deeds that advanced the interests of members. I've read that Safire's original, big favor to Trump was to help get his marginally qualified sister appointed to a federal judgeship. In the process, Safire held the young Donald's hand as he gained entry into the New York and DC Republican power elite.
Having now witnessed and experienced Trump and Trumpism for four years, I can say they mirror the experiences I had under Safire. My emotions sunk on Trump's inauguration day and fell therafter.
Through cronyism, William Safire came to be chairman of the influential Dana Foundation in 2000. Dana had a large commitment to the cause of brain research. I began work there in 1995.
Safire, who died in 2009, described himself as "the vituperative right-wing scandal monger" for the New York Times. He was probably more well-known as the Sunday language columnist for the Times Magazine. Former speech writer for President Richard Nixon (Safire was responsible for the term "nattering nabobs of negativism" -- actually delivered by Vice President Spiro Agnew), he traded in slash-and-burn, transactional relationships, just like Trump. (If you doubted Safire's loyalty to Richard Nixon, you need only stroll by the life-sized, autographed picture of the disgraced ex-president hung outside Safire's office. To Safire, Nixon did nothing wrong in the litany of scandals and crimes called Watergate. Nothing.)
Safire was hired by the Times when the paper realized it needed a right winger to counter the enlightened voices of Anthony Lewis, Russell Baker, Tom Wicker, Howell Raines, and others.
Like Trump, Safire fabricated and inflated his public image. At the Times, by 1978 Safire was about to be fired for lack of reader interest when he reinvented himself as a "journalist" (for which he had no training…his biography said only that he "attended Syracuse University"). As a marketing pitch man for Maytag Appliances, Safire met then-Vice President Nixon at the "Kitchen Summit" with Khrushchev in the Soviet Union.
The first victim of his "hatchet journalism" was Bert Lance, President Jimmy Carter's first budget director. Having helped push Lance out the door, as was his pattern, Safire later claimed that the two had become friends and colleagues. Safire also had a direct line to the office of the Israeli prime minister to feed and receive political dirt on world leaders. In the run up to the Iraqi War, Safire was stirring the pot of lies about Saddam Hussein's weapons program in his column. He also advocated for the discredited Times reporter Judy Miller, who promoted the theory of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, later found to be based on inaccurate information from the intelligence community.
In one memorable meeting at Dana, Safire recounted how on Meet the Press, in his avuncular tone, he tried with the help of host Tim Russert, to patch things up with Bill Clinton after having called Hillary Clinton a congenital liar. On the air, Russert offered Safire a pair of oversized boxing gloves, which if he signed, Russert said he would get Bill Clinton to sign as well, as a symbol that, again all was well. The president, an enraged Safire told us, "refused to sign the gloves and returned them unsigned to my office." Red with anger, Safire indicated that this was all you needed to know about Bill Clinton.
Like Trump, Safire was penurious and a deadbeat. My freelance writers and designers had routinely been paid upon submitting a bill when he decided to "stretch them out," needlessly, to 30-days payment. The move strained freelancers' ability to budget their finances and added extra stress on me and my fellow Dana editors. And it was needless pain because Dana was a wealthy non-profit: Safire controlled an endowment just short of $400 million.
Donald Trump has shown astonishing indifference to the deaths and suffering of Americans in the pandemic, to the massive numbers of families without jobs and income, and to the children and families at our borders, emotionally scarred for life. Similarly, his patron, Safire, was called by his own treasurer "the cheapest man in the world." In the aftermath of 9/11, Safire authorized a paltry one-time contribution of $50,000 to the Times Fund for the Neediest New Yorkers. This at a time when New York corporations and individuals were making much larger contributions, financially and in-kind, to a devastated city.
Safire and Trump created desultory, mean environments where women were objects to be used in sexual relationships. Aside from being morally objectionable, these arrangements (in Safire's case with women on staff) created favoritism and distrust among the staff as we tried to figure who was in favor and who wasn't. I was ordered to spy on one such woman by another who had become my boss.
Finally, Trump and Safire shared a total lack of pathos, or empathy. Instead they valued loyalty, especially blind loyalty. Safire told us directly that we were to be available to him at any time. He asked for and received our cell phone numbers. He threatened to fire staff not willing to sacrifice themselves and their family life to his irrational, erratic needs. One colleague, the intensely smart and capable Barbara Rich, saw no other option but to surrender to monstrously long hours and work demands. Each year, I watched as she managed to get only four days away of her four-weeks of vacation time (which usually included a three-day holiday weekend). A proud liberal and one-time campaigner for Robert F. Kennedy, she felt it necessary to accede to Safire's views by reading far right-wing Web sites such as the dreadful Drudge Report. Barbara was the only experienced journalist at the Foundation and she admitted she felt debased as Safire called her his chief "flak."
A breast cancer survivor, Barbara resumed smoking to deal with the stress. I winced as she kept adding projects and travel to her workload. One day, I watched her, ashen, break up with her partner by phone. She died of a stroke far too young a few years ago.
I resisted his work demands as long as I could, but when asked to write and edit a book on an insanely short schedule of six weeks, I knew I couldn't pull all-nighters and give up my personal life. My partner, Fred, and I had just built a weekend house and I couldn't bear the thought of him there alone while I stayed in the city indefinitely.
The worlds that Trump and Safire created were harsh and heartless. When I quit the Dana Foundation in 2006, it was very painful and career-damaging. I left a job that as a gay man I felt comfortable in because of the access I had to smart, intellectually, and sociably able colleagues. My work, despite the stresses, had a high "psychic reward" I never was able to replace.
The consequences of Trumpism, so similar to "Safireism," cut deep. They derailed lives, and ruined the health of workers. We used to joke that we wrote about the stress hormone cortisol as oceans of it flowed past our offices. If you wanted to maintain your relationship with him, or your job, the key was being able to call him "Bill." It signaled an obeisance, a surrender to his views and world, at least superficially. I could and would not do it.
How did Safire ultimately gain and maintain his power and influence? Much in the same way that Trump does it. Safire exploited a very basic principal of human behavior, something I learned from the brain scientists at the Dana Foundation: Fear is our most powerful emotion. Anybody in the advertising world knows this basic fact and exploits it to the maximum extent. Those who abhorred Safire's right-wing views, nevertheless glommed on to him to avoid his wrath, which could be terrifying. He could offer a word of slight praise and then five minutes later be in your face physically shaking with rage, irrationally and often misguidedly. Much like other men on the high-end of the corporate ladder, Safire had an imposing physical presence: he was quite tall and physically intimidating. He was another arrogant CEO, who in the words of my colleague Barbara Rich, was "looking for redemption from this world and not going to get it."
The "boss," as one especially maltreated secretary called him, also exploited another biological principle, phototropism, the basic tendency of plants...and humans...to bend toward a light source. He preyed on anyone's desire to be near power. He name-dropped his celebrity connections, (one being Monica Lewinsky) to remind you of the access he had created and to those who wanted to get that access (or a gift from the money he controlled) he readily offered a carrot. Oblivious to his audience, he once announced in a meeting that he was going to tell us everything we were dying to know about Monica. He had no clue that he was speaking to New York liberals and we did not want to hear his tawdry details, including information about the blue dress. I began to hate Amtrak trips to his office in Washington and I literally got depressed from the city and the atmosphere I experienced there.
Under Donald Trump, our country has gone down the same life-draining path. Particularly during the isolation induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, caused by Trump's incompetence and indifference, rates of depression, isolation and despair are now sky-high across America.
We won't fully realize how bad it's been until it ends -- both Trump's rule and the pandemic.
It took me years to recover from my traumatic experience on the periphery of America's power center. It eroded my self-confidence and self-image. It ended a writing career in which I took great pride.
I hope America fares better after Trump and recovers much more quickly. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, I'm pulling for you.
