A black woman was at the forefront of creating the COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci has said.
The US leading infectious disease expert spoke Tuesday, December 8 at an event hosted by the National Urban League and, while discussing racism in medical research and how it’s created mistrust.
Fauci put a spotlight on the contributions of Black scientists in the historic development of COVID vaccines, most notably Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett.
He stressed that the Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective, adding that African American scientists have been involved in their development.
“The very vaccine that’s one of the two that has absolutely exquisite levels — 94 to 95% efficacy against clinical disease and almost 100% efficacy against serious disease that are shown to be clearly safe — that vaccine was actually developed in my institute’s vaccine research center by a team of scientists led by Dr. Barney Graham and his close colleague, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, or Kizzy Corbett,” Fauci said.
Fauci added, “So, the first thing you might want to say to my African-American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you’re going to be taking was developed by an African-American woman. And, that is just a fact.”
Corbett is a known name in the medical research world. She’s the lead scientist for coronavirus vaccine research at Fauci’s National Institute of Health.
She was also part of the team that worked with Moderna to develop its vaccine that’s expected to get emergency use authorization from the FDA and be rolled out later this month.
