Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, who together identified a chemical tweak to messenger RNA, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday. Their work enabled potent Covid vaccines to be made in less than a year, averting tens of millions of deaths and helping the world recover from the worst pandemic in a century.

The approach to mRNA the two researchers developed has been used in Covid shots that have since been administered billions of times globally and has transformed vaccine technology, laying the foundation for inoculations that may one day protect against a number of deadly diseases like cancer.

The slow and methodical research that made the Covid shots possible has now run up against a powerful anti-vaccine movement, especially in the United States. Skeptics have seized in part on the vaccines’ rapid development — among the most impressive feats of modern medical science — to undermine the public’s trust in them.

But the breakthroughs behind the shots unfolded little by little over decades, including at the University of Pennsylvania, where Dr. Weissman runs a lab.

I'm not so sure about the masks, lockdowns, "non-essential travel" and so forth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, I'm so glad that my COVID-19 shots were up to date when I tested (home test) positive a few weeks ago. Although I was Very Uncomfortable there wasn't a need for hospitalization.
I'm pretty sure that at age 76 without the shots it could have been a Very Different story.
Hats off to Karikó and Drew Weissman for their work and saving lives,
JimmyT Sends
Bravo Zulu

Edit:
PS: We received our COVID-19 booster shots yesterday.
A sore shoulder this morning is a small thing to mind.

I had been vaccinated four times, the then last-of-which was two months before I went to my college reunion in June of '22. Despite 1500 people having to display vaccination cards to get into the reunion, I caught Covid. Doctor prescribed Paxlovid, which began working almost immediately. Five days later, I felt "functional" and tested negative, and a couple of weeks after that, I felt normal. I got another booster about four months later.

When we came back from Europe that fall, my wife tested positive. She can tell the same story about Paxlovid. It works. Side effects are a bad metallic taste in the mouth, and queasy stomach, but those are worth the annoyance. I never got Covid while my wife was sick, despite being in the same house (on a different floor for the duration, however).

I just had my sixth booster. It seems these will be at least annual, now, like flu shots.