Random thoughts: Covid-19, vaccines, failure and perseverance

Short essay by Catherine Carroll

Word count:  735

At the beginning of September, I began a part-time, temporary position with a regional nursing association to give influenza and Covid vaccines.  In this role I was primed to think of my own vaccine immunization, especially with an upcoming vacation that involved airline travel.  On September 25th I went to Walgreens for both my influenza and Covid vaccines.  My flight departed on September 30th and I didn’t want to invite a repeat of my March India trip Covid experience.

Image copied from:  The Role of Failure in Learning:  How to Embrace a Growth Mindset. ETHRWorld, by Abid Hasan, April 28, 2023.

After a 35 year career in health care, the last two years prior to retirement almost completely dominated by Covid, on October 2nd I was thrilled and to learn that Katalin Kariko, Ph.D and her research partner, Dr. Drew Weissman, had won the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine for their research on mRNA while working together at the University of Pennsylvania.  By now everyone knows that their work with mRNA led to highly effective and timely vaccines against Covid-19.  On the same day as their Nobel win announcement, the New York Times writer, Gina Kolata, wrote a moving profile of Kati Kariko, “Long Overlooked, Kati Kariko Helped Shield the World from the Coronavirus.”

Despite the many failures she confronted along her path studying mRNA, Kati Kariko was determined to prove that mRNA could be used to instruct cells to make their own medicines, including vaccines.  She worked tirelessly in this pursuit, embracing her failures as well as her successes.  At one point her husband calculated that with all of the time she spent in her lab, she was earning about a dollar an hour.  “When your idea is against the conventional wisdom, it is very hard to break out,” said the neurosurgeon Dr. David Langer, who worked with Dr. Kariko.  Dr. Langer also said, “The best scientists try to prove themselves wrong.  Kate’s genius was a willingness to accept failure and keep trying.”  She moved from lab to lab until she finally met and began working with her co-Nobel winner, Dr. Drew Weissman.  Cut to the chase, through a lot of work together they learned that mRNA could be used to make vaccines unlike any seen before.  The rest is history.  

The above paragraph is an oversimplified distillation of what the article discusses and I highly recommend reading the full article.  

This morning, Saturday October 14th, I selected the October 11th Freakonomics Radio podcast #561, “How to Succeed at Failing, Part 1:  The Chain of Events” for my early morning drive to my hairdressers.  When researchers asked people to describe their most recent failure, often a recent failure could not be recalled.  As I was driving and listening I could ponder this question.  I thought about a failure of mine that had occurred just a couple of days earlier while injecting a young woman with her influenza vaccine.  I was using new needles that I didn’t like.  Upon injecting the needle loosened from the barrel of the syringe and the vaccine dripped out on her arm and also on the floor.  I called my office and learned that I should not repeat the vaccine.  If it had only been the drip on her arm, I would have agreed, but I saw the drop on the floor and knew that the recipient had not received much, if any..  I disagreed with this decision.  My choice would have been to repeat the injection while making sure the needle was properly attached to the syringe..  For the rest of that clinic and the clinic I did on the following day, I found myself checking to make sure each needle was securely attached to the syringe.  I worry now that the recipient of the loose needle injection is not properly immunized against influenza.  Most likely influenza would not be a life or death situation for the robust, young woman.  But I want to pursue my question.  If she were to get the flu there are other undesirable sequelae that might occur.  I’m thinking here of things like mistrust in vaccines and, even greater, distrust in science.  Even in just one individual, we do not need more of this.  

The Freakonomics Radio podcast #561  “How to Succeed at Failing …”  is essential listening.  I’m like the guy on the State Farm TV commercial:  "There’s a podcast for that."