Meet Covid Buster- Black Scientist Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett

It has been a year since we all have lived life as usual. COVID-19 came in and took us all on a whirlwind. For me in particular, one day we were happily celebrating my mom’s birthday at her favorite restaurant. The next day school was canceled indefinitely.

The world was too. Words like pandemic, social distancing, quarantining, and masks were in our vernacular more than wanted. But have no fear, scientists were working immediately to find a solution by way of treatments and vaccines so that we could begin to live life as we once did.

One of these scientists is Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett, an African-American scientist. Dr. Corbett studied at the University of Maryland for her bachelor’s in biological sciences and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology.

As an immunologist, Dr. Corbett helps with vaccine development. She has been working on coronavirus vaccines like mRNA-1273 since 2014. mRNA-1273 was developed by Dr. Corbett and her team and was critical in the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Today, we have three viable Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson vaccines. These vaccines help to provide protection against covid by getting your immune system to respond to the coronavirus. Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is very important because it reduced the chance of getting COVID and its devastating consequence of the illness.

Recently, Dr. Corbett has joined Harvard’s faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. There she will further vaccine development research.

Here is a quote from Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African-American women to become a doctor of medicine in America :

“I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to relieve the sufferings of others.”

Be Amazing! 🍋