Irene Kuhn, PhD
Science and Ideas Group COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines, Virus, Variants, Immunity, & Its Origin: Nature or Lab?
Irene Kuhn, Virologist and Cancer Cell Biologist, with a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of California, Davis, explains her presentation: "The pandemic has been a major event in all our lives, with many sad and challenging consequences. When the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials proved promising, I put together the presentation we will go over in Part 1 of this talk. In it, I present in lay language the decades of scientific research that culminated in our ability to produce amazingly effective mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, as well as short introductions to the virus, its variants, and how immunity is elicited and stored to protect us from future exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. Part 2 of this talk considers some of the questions surrounding the origin of the virus, SARS-CoV-2 -- Nature or Lab Leak. This has become a hot - and sadly politicized - topic. As someone who has done Gain of Function research, I hope to give some respectful background that may help us approach this contentious issue with calm minds. It is a fast-changing scene, so it promises to be a lively discussion." .