I get so many reasonable folks asking me whether we can trust the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines because they were developed in such a short period of time. They’re smart but nervous. Here’s something to remember: 1/

This is NOT a vaccine created in 9 months. The origin of this vaccine go back many years. 2/

The first reports of an mRNA vector in a lipid particle used as a transfer vehicle go back to 1989 at the Salk Institute. Vaccines were considered using this in the 1990s. Kariko and Weissman made the big leap forward in 2005. What was it? 3/

They modified the nucleosides of the mRNA, the building blocks that encode the viral protein, so that they would be recognized as host RNA and properly translated. 4/

Moderna (ever notice those last 3 letters?) started in 2010 to expressly use this technology. 5/

The first vaccines of this variety are NOT against COVID — it was MERS and the OG SARS. Those trials are more than three years old! 6/

The real analog here is 2009. That’s when we took the pandemic H1N1 strain and made a vaccine with it in 6 months. THATS a good analogy. 7/

So the next time friends are nervous about this vaccine technology and development, let them know that REM and Nirvana were the big bands when this started, Clinton was President, and an i-anything from Apple was more than half a decade away. 8/8