The full name is “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2”.
It is not mild, nor has it ever been. They don’t call it MARS-CoV-2. It would be a very confusing name anyways because we live on Earth, not Mars, btw. And I don’t think the Martians would appreciate being unluckily associated with this virus.
The first successful transfection of designed mRNA packaged within a liposomal nanoparticle into a cell was published in 1989.[16][17] “Naked” (or unprotected) lab-made mRNA was injected a year later into the muscle of mice.[3][18] These studies were the first evidence that in vitro transcribed mRNA with a chosen gene was able to deliver the genetic information to produce a desired protein within living cell tissue[3] and led to the concept proposal of messenger RNA vaccines.[19][20][21]
Liposome-encapsulated mRNA encoding a viral antigen was shown in 1993 to stimulate T cells in mice.[22][23] The following year self-amplifying mRNA was developed by including both a viral antigen and replicase encoding gene.[22][24] The method was used in mice to elicit both a humoral and cellular immune response against a viral pathogen.[22] The next year mRNA encoding a tumor antigen was shown to elicit a similar immune response against cancer cells in mice.[25][26]
The first human clinical trial using ex vivo dendritic cells transfected with mRNA encoding tumor antigens (therapeutic cancer mRNA vaccine) was started in 2001.[27][28] Four years later, the successful use of modified nucleosides as a method to transport mRNA inside cells without setting off the body’s defense system was reported.[27][29] Clinical trial results of an mRNA vaccine directly injected into the body against cancer cells were reported in 2008.[30][31]
It would have been interesting to see the mRNA vaccine arrive two decades earlier. It unlocks so much new medicine and we underfunded it until COVID sparked wartime funding.
In March 2022 Moderna announced the development of mRNA vaccines for 15 diseases: Chikungunya virus, COVID-19, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, Dengue, Ebola virus disease, HIV, Malaria, Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), Nipah and henipaviral diseases, Rift Valley fever, Severe fever with Thrombocytopenia syndrome, Tuberculosis and Zika
That’s so many lives destroyed from 2003-2022 who could have cheaply lived if SARS-CoV-1 took off like SARS-CoV-2.
