When Christopher Cordle 鈥�69 was a self-described 鈥渇arm boy鈥� in the 1950s, he vividly recalls the oral polio vaccine program 鈥淪abin on Sunday.鈥� In the 鈥�50s and early 鈥�60s, polio vaccinations (developed by Jonas Salk) and oral polio vaccines (developed by Albert Sabin) were administered across the United States, and Cordle remembers going with his family to take his oral vaccine. Thanks to the successful vaccination programs, polio has not been seen in the U.S. since 1979.
Fast forward to 2020 and the world is in the middle of its worst pandemic in 100 years. Cordle watched as the United States and other countries raced to develop a vaccine to fight COVID-19. He was skeptical that mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine technology would be effective and could be developed quickly, but later was ecstatic to find he was wrong.
鈥淭he new vaccines are so extraordinary,鈥� Cordle said. 鈥淚 thought to myself, 鈥楢re these guys crazy? That鈥檚 never going to work. There鈥檚 not a single mRNA vaccine approved for humans in the world.鈥� Boy was I wrong.聽The thing I love most in science is when my favorite prejudice or theory is dashed by new data.鈥�
Cordle was raised in Knox County, OH, where he resides now. While attending Otterbein, the U.S. was dominated by the race to the moon. 鈥淭he country was enamored by science,鈥� Cordle said. He attended graduate school at Johns Hopkins University as the government ramped up efforts to increase funding in science.
At Johns Hopkins, Cordle studied immunochemistry and immunology, the branch of biology that deals with the immune system. In 1980, he took a position as an immunochemist at Ross Labs, now Abbott Labs.
Although he retired from Abbott Labs in 2018, Cordle says he was mesmerized as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. He closely followed the race to develop a vaccine to combat it.
鈥淔or the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the scientists and the people who laid the groundwork, certainly there will be some Nobel Prizes, and not only that, the thanks of the planet,鈥� Cordle said. 鈥淭he integration of all the research and development by Pfizer and Moderna is an extraordinary accomplishment in the timeframe it was accomplished in. They just said 鈥楧on鈥檛 worry about whose budget it is, just do this,鈥� and they did! These vaccines are safe and effective and, if fully used, will save millions of lives across the globe.鈥�
As director of the 9i果冻制作厂interdisciplinary program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Professor John Tansey also followed closely how quickly the vaccines were developed.
鈥淭here were already other coronaviruses that people knew about, such as SARS and MERS,鈥� Tansey said. 鈥淲e already had an idea about how these viruses work, what they bind to, and their life cycle. Because we鈥檝e had these basic advances in the sciences, it just takes far less time to develop therapies now than it would even a few years ago.鈥�
The coronavirus uses its spikes to bond to human cells and gain entry to the human body. The result can be serious illness and death. The vaccines will build up immunity against the virus.
Tansey said the difference between the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines is due to the differences in how the information in coronaviruses is delivered to the immune system.
While the mRNA technology used by Pfizer and Moderna is new, the viral vector technology of the
Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been used by scientists since the 1970s.
Cordle and Tansey agree that the mRNA vaccines are important developments in scientific history. The speed in which the COVID-19 vaccines were developed, and the massive implementation of vaccines in arms, is remarkable, they say. The COVID-19 vaccines are a big step in getting the U.S. back to the new normal.
But the vaccines have sparked political and trust issues in America too. 鈥淭his is really just a human health issue and not a political one,鈥� Tansey said.
Cordle agrees. 鈥淚 think some people are naturally distrustful of anything new,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think many people get information from bad sources. For this vaccine, because of the necessity to have it out there quickly, it鈥檚 created a push and so some people naturally push back.鈥�
The vaccines have introduced an ethical dilemma for some Americans. Equity in access to vaccines is at the core of this discussion.
9i果冻制作厂Professor Stephanie Patridge teaches classes in ethics, philosophy of art, philosophy of race, and human rights.
鈥淎ssuming that the goal of mass vaccination is to save as many lives as possible, then we likely do have a moral reason to pay attention to things like socio-economic status, and racial or ethnic status,鈥� Patridge said. 鈥淭here is a significant amount of empirical data to suggest that phenomena like racial weathering 鈥� advanced aging caused by the intense stress of living in a racist society 鈥� and working in frontline and essential industries have a significant impact on who gets sick (primarily those of low socio-economic status and Black, Indigenous and People of Color) and how sick they will get.鈥�
Will the vaccine get the U.S. back to normal?
鈥淭he vaccine will get us back to the new normal life,鈥� Cordle said. 鈥淭here will never be such a thing as the old 鈥榥ormal鈥� again. If you won鈥檛 get vaccinated, your future and the health of your family and friends is at risk. Please folks, get vaccinated, as soon as you can.鈥�
Grace Weidenhamer 鈥�23 is a health communication and public relations major from Westerville, OH. She plays on the 9i果冻制作厂women鈥檚 soccer team and is on the executive board of Otterbein鈥檚 Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA).
