NOT THROWING
AWAY OUR SHOT

MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE DAY SOME HOPE RETURNED TO AN EMBATTLED NATION. That morning, the first federally authorized doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s highly effective COVID-19 vaccine were given in the US. A week later, the Moderna vaccine was greenlighted. Soon after the first vaccine shipment entered Georgia, Emory Healthcare began inoculating employees.

Emergency room nurse manager Nicole Baker was the first person at Emory Healthcare to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. “I actually cried when I was told I would receive the vaccine,” says Baker, who has now had both Pfizer shots. “But I also continue to social distance and double mask. As a nurse, I do feel confident in the science as long as we the people listen to the guidance that science provides.”

Emory’s vaccine mobilization was part of a vaccine distribution effort that spanned the globe, but it was highly personal for health care workers. 

“We are excited to begin the process of vaccinating our frontline staff members today, who have courageously battled this pandemic caring for patients with COVID-19 for so many months,” announced Jonathan Lewin, CEO of Emory Healthcare.  

Some of the vaccines being given that day had been tested for safety and effectiveness at Emory, including clinical trials for the Moderna vaccine as well as Novavax, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical, and Sanofi vaccines. 

The university has been conducting clinical trials of vaccines for more than 30 years, as well as developing research facilities and recruiting experts in the field with help from the Georgia Research Alliance. The schools of medicine and public health, the Vaccine Research Center and its clinical arm, the Hope Clinic in Decatur, and the Yerkes National Primate Research Center have allowed Emory to play a pivotal role in fighting COVID-19 through research, clinical trials, and vaccine testing and development. 

“We not only had vaccine expertise but also an in-depth knowledge of human immunology,” says Rafi Ahmed, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and director of the Emory Vaccine Center. “Our largest vaccine program has been for HIV, and we also have a significant influenza vaccine program. That experience and infrastructure is paying off now.”

Vaccines are one of the most effective public health interventions in history, saving the lives of 2.5 million each year (pre-COVID-19) and protecting millions more from illness and disability. 

Smallpox was eliminated from the world in 1980, the first infectious disease to be eradicated by vaccine. Due to vaccines, polio and rubella have been eliminated in the US, and tetanus, measles, and diphtheria are rare. Vaccines now exist for mumps, seasonal influenza, HPV, hepatitis, pertussis (whooping cough), yellow fever, typhoid fever, shingles, rotavirus, rabies, chickenpox, pneumonia, and many more dreadful diseases. 

We sat down with (well, actually, spoke over Zoom with) several Emory vaccinologists, immunologists, and infectious disease experts to talk about vaccines past and present, why they were drawn to the work of infectious disease and the immune system, and what we can expect now that COVID-19 vaccines—and variants—are here.