Hungarian and US Colleague Win Nobel Prize for Controversial COVID Vaccine

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary celebrated Monday after this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Hungarian-born scientist Katalin Karikó and U.S. colleague Drew Weissman for developing technology that led to controversial mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

The Swedish award-giving body wanted to award the pair, who had been tipped as favorites, “with the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.”

The announcement was made by Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, who also said both scientists were “overwhelmed” by news of the prize when he contacted them.

Karikó, a 68-year-old professor at Szeged University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine.

She was a senior vice president at BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to make one of the COVID-19 vaccines. Her colleagues in Hungary praised what they called “her amazing perseverance” during decades of often lonely research that made the prize possible.

They recall that after doing biological research in the Hungarian town of Szeged, she moved to the United States, hoping to extend her scientific work. However, after several years, support for her research was terminated, prompting her to look for other ways to continue.

WEISSMAN HELPS

In 1998, she found her scientific partner in Weissman. They had met while waiting in line for a photocopier, the two recalled.

Now 64, Weismann is of the University of Pennsylvania and professor and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations

Yet not all critics share the enthusiasm over their invention amid reported side effects of the vaccines and even deaths. Some experts have also expressed concern that mRNA technology could undermine the immune system.

Yet the World Health Organization has endorsed rolling out the mRNA shots worldwide, with supporters claiming the risks outweigh the benefits.

Critics also say mRNA vaccines were initially mainly sent to Europe and North America. Only a few shots were made available to poorer countries months after vaccination started in wealthy nations.

The prize the scientists share carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor or $1 million— from a legacy left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.

They will receive their awards at ceremonies on December 10th, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

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