This year, Thanksgiving has already worn the heavy mantle of a much-diminished family and friends-centered holiday. Millions of celebrations, milestones, anniversaries, meetings, weddings, funerals and simple lunches and hugs with a friend or colleague have been forsaken during these past nine months.
As we brace ourselves for what is possible, what is the right thing to do and for the loss of family traditions, we can hope for a light at the end of this tunnel.
We contemplate the Thanksgiving feast this year where we give thanks for the kindness, spirit and inspiration of those who have made these past months more bearable. We say a prayer for those who did not survive.
Perhaps we will set a place for pharmaceutical companies at our table.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the richest businesses in the world. Billions of dollars pour into research for Cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to name a few. No doubt the race for the cure for this virus will make the most recent companies and their leadership absurdly wealthy. So be it. It is a business after all. As of now, there are three pharmaceuticals that have announced a vaccine for Covid 19.
What is a vaccine? “A vaccine is a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease.”
In simple terms our immune system reacts to the vaccine as if it were being invaded by the disease. It makes antibodies which, in turn, destroy the vaccine injected “disease”. In this way, our bodies are training to fight the real disease, thus giving us immunity.
Why does it take so much time from stage one to delivery? Look at the years of research for the cure of Alzheimer’s? As of this date, there is no vaccine or treatment that works for this tragic disease.
We remember the polio scare from the 1950s. Lucy and I had a friend whose mother was in an iron lung. She was such a wonderful and beautiful woman and never lost her enthusiasm for us kids. My parents terrified me about polio, telling me that when I went swimming I was at risk for polio because I might get a chill after swimming. The race for a cure for polio was fast tracked to the point of a vaccine within three years.
For now, let’s pause and be grateful for scientists, doctors and for the thousands of anonymous men and women in white lab coats whose dedication fuels hope for the future. Let us be thankful for those who ensure that the solution to this pandemic will protect all of us.
Stay safe and well.
Lucy and Claudia