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Dec 14, 2020Liked by Clayton Mansel

While vaccine research has indeed been fast, there are some problems with how it has been presented here. First of all, there are multiple teams working on different approaches in different countries. This does not mean "humanity has come together" but rather lots of good science, driven by the mission as well as billions of dollars and the promise of billions more. Secondly, the Russians and Chinese already have vaccines that they are shipping to other countries. The US has not been the first, nor the Europeans. This is not at all like the Moon landing where one country led and has not been surpassed. Indeed, science is corruptible and has a political face as well, and the current president has done as much as possible to do just that, from a compromised CDC to defunding the WHO. Also, the vaccine for the 1918 flu pandemic is a real challenger to how things came together and where cutting edge science was done at an astonishing pace. It really is a worth reading about this, and I highly recommend the book by John M. Barry: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3369965484

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