Henry salutes creation of `miracle' vaccines
Hungarian-born biochemist key driver behind breakthrough mRNA method
Dr. Bonnie Henry has been using unscientific language to draw attention to the “amazing” and “miraculous” nature of the new vaccines against COVID-19.
This time last year, she and others in her field were not sure there would ever be a vaccine, never mind ones with 90 per cent-plus efficacy.
“From somebody who's been working in the vaccine world for 30 years, it is amazing to us that we can have, in such a short period of time, a new technology that is 95 per cent effective in protecting somebody from a new disease and even more effective at preventing people from having severe illness and dying from COVID-19,” she said recently.
The first two vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are way ahead of traditional influenza vaccines in protecting seniors, according to Henry.
“We don't mount as good an immune response as we get older,” she explained. In the past, public health officials have had to vaccinate caregivers, family members and others “in a ring” around seniors to fully insulate them from the flu.
“But that is not the case with these new vaccines, which is really why I'm so excited about them,” she continued. “They work well in older people by themselves. That's miraculous in many ways.”
While B.C.'s case count remains high in the general population, hospitalizations and deaths in long-term care have dropped since the limited supply of vaccines was dedicated to residents and staff in those facilities.
“We are seeing our way out of this pandemic,” says Henry. “Part of the reason is because we now have a really effective vaccine that works in older people, something that those of us who've been working in immunization for many, many years really find miraculous.”
She has also underscored the revolutionary nature of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as the first of a new generation of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines.
“We have taken a piece of the genetic code from the virus that helps translate into the spike protein, that little spiky bit on the outside of the virus,” Henry explained when the two vaccines passed clinical trials late last year. “That protein then is produced by our cells, and our immune system responds to that to develop antibodies. Then, if we're exposed to the virus, we have those antibodies that attach to it and protect us from becoming ill.”
The breakthrough extended to the process of producing the vaccines as well.
“It's synthetic genetic material, which means that it can be manufactured in large amounts very quickly. In other words, the vaccine helps us skip the illness and get straight to producing productive antibodies.”
She and her colleagues in public health were hoping for vaccines that would be 50 to 60 per cent effective against COVID-19.
“The fact that these ones are in the high 90s are the best that we could hope for in public health. I believe these may revolutionize vaccines for the future — for other respiratory illnesses, for example.”
The other two vaccines approved for use in Canada, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, are also rated as effective but they are not of the mRNA variety. Only Pfizer and Moderna herald a revolution.
“These types of vaccines have been worked on for decades,” Dr. Henry. “But this is the first time that it (an mRNA vaccine) has been manufactured and shown to work.”
I thought back over her comments on the miracle vaccines when she paused on International Women's Day to pay tribute to women in science, research and public health.
The breakthrough in developing mRNA vaccines is credited to biochemist Katalin Karikó, whose name is circulating as a likely recipient of a Nobel Prize.
Hers is a classic story of painstaking research and never-give-up determination triumphing over repeated setbacks in and out of the lab.
“She was demoted, doubted and rejected,” as CNN reported late last year. “Now her work is the basis of the COVID-19 vaccine.”
The standout personal detail in her biography tells how she and her husband fled Iron Curtain Hungary in 1985 with the equivalent of $1,500 Canadian hidden inside their toddler daughter's teddy bear.
Karikó did a lot of her research at the University of Pennsylvania, starting in the 1990s. Since 2013 she has been a senior vice-president with BioNTech, which developed the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in conjunction with Pfizer.
“I never doubted it would work,” she told the U.K. Guardian newspaper last fall when the vaccine was proved to have 95 per cent efficacy.
The picture with the article showed her and husband Bela Francia, flanking daughter Susan Francia, who is a two-time Olympic gold medal winner in rowing. It had me wondering who will play Karikó in the inevitable biopic.
She is not alone in her success of course. If the Nobel does come her way in October, she will share it with her research partner in the breakthrough, immunologist Drew Weissman.
But let Henry have the last word.
“I hope that seeing the strong women leaders that we have around the world, and here in Canada, is an inspiration to young women and girls everywhere — that they see themselves in science, technology, engineering, math, and arts and all of the other important parts of our learning and our environment,” she said Monday.
“I hope it's an inspiration.” I agree.
The first two vaccines ... are way ahead of traditional influenza vaccines in protecting seniors.