More than one million people died just in the U.S. as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in 2020. But a scientific miracle – a vaccine released later that same year – saved countless lives. Last year Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, the two scientists whose research in messenger RNA (or mRNA) and immunology enabled the development of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines, were named Nobel Prize-winners. “Sunday Morning” contributor Kelefa Sanneh talks with Weissman and Karikó about their partnership, and the unusual trajectories of their lives that led to a breakthrough that may reshape vaccine treatment for a host of diseases.
The Nobel laureates behind mRNA COVID vaccines
