As you know, the brainiacs on the far right believe that the Dems and other radical ‘socialists’ are controlled by a ‘dark state’ controlled by Hillary Clinton operating out of secret pizza parlors that are fronts for pedophilia rings. Even those with the best educations available, like Governor Ron Desantis, cozy up to such borderline psychoses. I’ve always thought that he and the other Ivy League conservatives know full well that this nonsense is BS. It simply is the easiest way to con a large and remarkably gullible base as they pursue ever more power. So, for example, they gleefully attack Covid vaccines as the Devil’s work and demonize Anthony Fauci as Satan’s pawn. So what if people die or suffer as a consequence of their immoral and self-serving stands, they will garner ever more power from a fanatical cult.

The true believers on the right might now have another target for their venom … the Nobel Prize selection committee for Physiology and Medicine. How the radical left in America managed to infiltrate and take control of this international committee based in Stockholm is a bit of a mystery to me. However, they are a crafty and dedicated lot. Besides, you can’t refute the evidence. Given the most recent announcement of the Nobel selection committee, it is clear that the ‘dark state’ now controls those in charge of awarding sciences most prestigious awards.

It was announced that this year’s prize in Physiology and Medicine would be given to Professors Katalin Kariko of Szeged University in Hungary and Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania for their work in developing the MRNA approach to developing vaccines. Their breakthrough work resulted in the Covid vaccines being developed in record time, enabling their early availability to fight off the most significant global health threat in memory … Covid 19 and its variants. Of course, you are only impressed with their work if you do not believe that Covid was a fraud unleashed on a gullible world to embarrass the greatest world leader since Napoleon Bonaparte … Donald Trump.

Let us assume the pandemic was, in fact, real. After all, I cannot imagine the entire world collaborating with America’s radical left to foster a hoax on the U.S. just so liberals could impose specious mandates and shut down much of the economy for a while. Yes, the response to the pandemic (real or fake) was an inconvenience to our wannabe dictator, the Donald. However, I thought he redeemed himself well by suggesting we all drink bleach or some such rot. Only NFL QB Aaron Rodgers came up with a more creative solution … Intervectin. Wow! It remains a mystery as to how the Nobel committee could overlook the contributions of Trump and Rodgers in handing out this prestigious award. Perhaps the fact that both of these loonies are bat shit crazy had something to do with the Committee ignoring them.

Apparently, the Committee decided to go with solid science as opposed to political exploitation and personal delusions. How narrow of them. The winners, Katalin and Weissman, first met at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1990s where they began to pursue a new concept for developing life saving vaccines.

Up until then, most vaccines used dead or weakened forms of a virus to protect patients from more deadly forms of the disease. As the 18th century came to a close, Edward Jenner presumably overheard a milkmaid comment that she would not get smallpox because she already had the cowpox. Apparently, regular folk knew instinctively about the therapeutic advantages of exposure to a less virulent form of an infectious disease. Jenner ran with this insight and successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of inoculations to ward off the dire consequences of the more deadly smallpox.

Most subsequent vaccines were based on the same principle. However, Kariko and Weissman pursued a different tact, one that was ignored by mainstream science at the time. Then again, the developer of the polio vaccine, Dr. Jonas Salk, was dismissed early on by many in the medical community. He also persisted and was proved correct when his vaccine against a dreaded disease that I feared as a kid became available in the mid-1950. Dr. Albert Sabin was one of the early critics of Salk, though he did go on to develop an oral form of the polio vaccine several years down the road. But Salk ignored his critics and pursued his vision. His dedication and courage undoubtedly saved many lives and avoided great suffering.

Just what is this new approach developed by the Nobel winners? I’m a layman, but here is what I understand. They take part of the genetic code of the virus and turn it into a vaccine. This vaccine enters the cells and tells them to produce the Coronavirus spike protein. These look like spikes sticking out from the cell. The body’s immune system reacts as if a pathological virus is present. Antibodies are produced and T-cells activated. It is much like the body preparing for a real war. Now, if a person then contracts Coronavirus, the antibodies and T-cells are present and prepared to attack this potentially more deadly threat.

The big idea behind this technology (which I really don’t understand) is to use the genetic code in innovative ways. Presumably, future vaccines to ward off new threats can be developed using this insight and on a much more expeditious time frame. I recall thinking that the scientists frantically working on a Covid vaccine in 2020 came up with something in an astonishingly short time.

Kariko and Weissman’s insight may be on the order of Jenner’s smallpox and Alexander Flemming’s anti-biotic revolution (penicillin). Using specific genetic codes might well unlock the key to other life- saving vaccinations, perhaps including ways to fight specific forms of cancer. Only time will tell.

For now, Kariko and Weissman likely will be added to the far right’s hall of shame, along with Anthony Fauci, the dedicated scientists and doctors at the Center for Disease Control, and all those who labor in research labs in the search for new ways to save lives and reduce human suffering. May they continue their heroic work even as the far right attacks and vilifies them merely in the pusuit of power and personal gain or merely to vent their accumulated bile.

Society may adore football stars and Taylor Swift. In my book, however. those that push the boundaries of knowledge are the real heroes today, no matter what the hate-mongers on the right claim.