Anika’s Zen and the Power of Gratitude. A new weekly column. Every Sunday.

 

A Year Since

 

It has been just over a year since the world shut down with a widespread pandemic that started in China and made its way into 219 countries in the world, in a matter of months! With 123 million cases worldwide and causing 2.7 million deaths, it brought the entire world to a standstill, for an entire year!

With hope now coming in the form of vaccines and the world slowly opening up, I look back at the heroes of this pandemic! But first, let’s talk Science.

 

Swift and Agile

 

 

The vaccine for COVID-19 is the fastest ever produced in the history of mankind! The Ebola vaccine, in comparison, took 5 years! No vaccine, ever before, has been developed so quickly and been ready for mass use.

This pandemic also brought several heterogenous groups to work together, including governments. Worried about the severity of infections as well as the high death rates, governments across the world put measures in place to protect their citizens – from lockdowns to investing millions of dollars into vaccine research and development. They even went a step further to ensure its manufacturing and distribution.

These same governments, acting swiftly and being agile, (not words that you would usually associate with governments) also took other measures, including, allowing breweries and distilleries, to produce alcohol-based hand sanitizers, as demand skyrocketed. A call answered even by luxe companies such as LVMH, who retooled their production lines! LVMH, very quickly, used their factories that produced perfume and makeup for brands like Christian Dior and Givenchy, to start making hand gel. Others got inspired and a number of alcohol distilleries across the globe reported switching their production to hand sanitizer, in a matter of weeks.

 

The Road to Vaccine

 

 

Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic, but in 2020, scientists embarked on a never-before seen race to produce safe and effective coronavirus vaccines in human record time.

Currently, 78 vaccines are being tested in clinical trials on humans, and 23 have reached the final stages of testing. Outside of that, at least 77 pre-clinical vaccines are being actively investigated in animals.

As early as the 1st quarter of 2020, more than 380 companies embarked on the journey to create the vaccine for the high-infectious coronavirus. Close to 14 continue to be the front-runners. Of these, three are already being used in the US – the double dose Moderna and Pfizer and the recently approved and introduced, the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

A human feat and a scientific miracle, no less!

 

Science Tech goes a Step Further

 

 

This vaccine is different in many ways. And I don’t just mean along the lines of the ‘quickest and the fastest’ but the technology aspect as well.

The vaccine is using something called RNA technology. Think of it like teaching a man to fish, instead of, you know, handing over the fish! This technology uses your gene code to teach your cells how to make proteins. The reasons why this is so amazing is because the next time something like this happens, a vaccine can be built faster and more easily than the traditional method. Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine uses this technology, birthing from a computer design in January 2020 to being studied on humans in just three months!

Phase 1 results came in late May 2020, as did the start of a mid-stage trial. The Phase 3 study began on July 27 and, four months later, delivered strongly positive results that indicated the vaccine was 94% effective in preventing COVID-19!

 

The Fauci Effect

 

 

Even as college and university enrollment overall had dropped last Fall, there continues to be a wave of what officials say is a record number of applicants to medical school. Up 18% this year over last, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), it seems to be driven by the phenomenal feat achieved by medical workers and public health figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

While talking about it, Geoffrey Young, the AAMC’s senior director for student affairs and programs, compares it to another tragic moment in American history: Sept 11, 2001. He said and I quote “After Sept. 11, there was a huge increase in the number of men and women entering into the military. So far in my lifetime, at least, and for as long as I’ve been in medical education, that’s the only comparison that I could make.”

Stanford University School of Medicine reported a 50% jump in the number of applications. That is 11,000 applications for 90 seats. Boston University School of Medicine’s applications are up 27%. In other words, 12,024 for about 110 seats.

Medical school admissions officers, and now others, have started calling this the Fauci Effect.

 

Science’s Moment in the Sun

 

There are so many heroes of this pandemic and it will take several columns to do them justice. But for now, to give justice where it is due, this is truly the moment of science and scientists. Scientists such as Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, for instance, who have dedicated their entire lives pioneering personalized immunotherapy treatments for cancer. But amid the coronavirus pandemic, it was their groundbreaking research in the field of modified genetic code that were the brains behind the world’s first effective coronavirus vaccine.

 

The ‘Science’ in Me

 

Not too long ago, I used to be a science student. In fact, I came first in my country of 1.2 billion people, for my science project. It was a simple project that used data and observation to look at the correlation between various elements at play and growth. Perhaps that is how my love for observation may have started. The win was big enough to put me on local television at the age of 16! But when I sometimes share this, people are usually surprised. Surprised because they don’t think of me as a science student, having then moved onto Psychology, Marketing and Consumer Behavior (with a sprinkling of Political Science on the side!)

What made me move? I was being pushed to become a doctor and not wanting to adhere to the Asian Indian stereotype, I fought it by changing streams altogether. Don’t get me wrong. I love behavior and I love it enough, to someday, do a PhD on the subject.

 

If the Clock was to turn Back

 

Having said that, if I could do it all over again, I just might do medicine and become a doctor. One who would have been on the frontlines, putting her own life in danger, working long hours every day and not knowing when they might have time for a meal, because they are so busy saving lives.

Perhaps, the Fauci Effect is so strong that even I am having second thoughts! Perhaps that is what a really effect does – it does not need social to make it viral, it does not need white papers and articles. What it does need is consistency and a belief for what you stand for. In other words, the definition of a brand and brand purpose.

Every time I saw Dr. Fauci on television, I saw someone who represented the global science community as well as someone who represented hope. In a short span, he has become a brand ambassador for science in general and for medicine, in particular.

 

In Deep Gratitude for Science

 

I am in deep gratitude for Dr. Fauci and what he is continues to do for the future of science. I hope somewhere out there, someone is writing a children’s book where F now stands for Fauci and children will soon hear the tale of this one man who stood up and fought for science against all odds, including the (gasp!) possibility of saving ourselves with drinking bleach!

Naysayers are not new to the world, and this time is no different. There are those who believe that the world is flat, that we never landed on the moon and that vaccines don’t work.

As the world continues to try and move on from a year of pause, and more of us put our belief in science by getting ourselves vaccinated, I do want to take a moment and bow my head in deep gratitude for all those who, day in and day out, were in labs across the globe, trying to get the fastest vaccine in the history of mankind, to the finish line.

The vote is in – science did save us. Along the way, it is also inspiring an entire generation to embrace their lab coats, aka white capes, to become real life heroes. What a miracle. Now that science!

 

Read my previous blogs below:

• Anika’s Zen and the Power of Gratitude
• Sack Full of Breaths
• The Power of Silence: A Date with Myself
• Travel Through the Glass
• The Elusive Trophy
• The Joy of Everyday
• Does Love Have a Color?
• My Neighborhood, My Tribe
• The Snow Persisted
• Lucky Me, a Woman

 

Anika Sharma is a digital thought leader, a mother, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. She was recently named as one of the top 150 digital global leaders to follow in 2021. When she is not busy working or raising her two teenage children, you can find her planting herbs in her garden, meditating with her friends, swimming long laps or filling rooms with her cackling laughter. Contact her at anikadas@gmail.com or on twitter

 

If you enjoyed this blog, read about the Many Benefits of Gratitude, Covid-19: How I am Learning to Cope, Seven Ways to Manage Your Emotions, Covid-19 and Beyond and the Rules of Simple Living.