Take Five

How America got to know this health research scientist from an institute nobody knew existed

On Jan. 28, 2020, as America began to wake up to the threat of an unknown virus, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the first of what would become daily televised appearances. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is one of the 27 institutes that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), part of the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2008, the NIAID celebrated 60 years of research that has led to new therapies, vaccines, diagnostic tests, and other technologies that have improved the health of millions of people in the United States and worldwide. But few Americans outside of medical research circles had ever heard of the NIAID.

“We have already started at the NIH, and with many of our collaborators, the developing of a vaccine,” Fauci said at the news conference. “Right now, it’s been prepared, and with cautious optimism, we will be at phase 1 trial within the next three months.”

However, Fauci cautioned that the NIH and others were looking at the worst-case scenario. By March, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak had reached pandemic proportions. By the end of the year, COVID-19 had killed more than 346,000 people in the U.S.

Vaccines to the rescue!

On Dec. 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the first emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in individuals 16 years and older. A week later, the FDA issued permission for the second vaccine. The emergency use authorization allows the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for use in individuals 18 years of age and older. As people tried to make sense of the speed of it all, the National Urban League (NUL) hosted a conversation with Fauci to address vaccine hesitancy. The NUL joined the Coalition Against COVID-19 to host a town hall on the disease’s threat to Black and brown communities.

Fauci sought to address medical mistrust, which runs deep in Black communities in Alabama, where people still gather in memory of the men who suffered the horror of the Tuskegee experiment. Fauci also spoke about the monitoring board that determines whether a vaccine is safe and the hidden figures of independent clinicians, scientists, statisticians, and ethicists who serve the American public. When asked about African American scientists’ input, Fauci’s response was heard across America.

“The very vaccine, that’s one of the two, that has an exquisite level, 94 or 95 percent efficacy, against clinical disease, and almost 100 percent efficacy against serious disease, that has shown to be safe; that vaccine was 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. “Kizzy is an African-American scientist who is right at the forefront of developing the vaccine. You might want to say that an African American woman developed the vaccines you will be taking. And that is just the fact, and that is something that people do not fully appreciate.”

Meet Dr. Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Corbett

As the team lead for coronavirus research within the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory (VPL) at the NIAID Vaccine Research Center, Corbett worked on developing an mRNA vaccine with Moderna, which received emergency use authorization after achieving a 95 percent effective rate.

On Instagram, Corbett, aka @kizzyphd, reposted a clip from the NUL interview with a seven-word caption: “Dr. Fauci’s take on our team’s research.”

In a later post, the rising medical star had more to say. “Today, people will get vaccinated with a vaccine that I woke up on Jan. 11 to help design,” Corbett wrote. “I remember the day, in February, when mRNA-1273 arrived at our lab at NIAID Vaccine Research Center, and mice waited in the basement for their injections. At the time, we just had our sights on phase 1 clinical trial by 100 days, with no idea the virus would spread into a pandemic.” Sixty-six days on, the first human was injected with the vaccine in a phase 1 trial, Corbett shared with her 87,000 followers, and nine months later, “after more than 76 million COVID cases globally, people in the U.S. will

Dr. Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Corbett, team lead for coronavirus research within the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory (VPL) at the NIAID Vaccine Research Center

receive the vaccine under emergency use authorization. Lives are about to be saved. Hospitals will become less overwhelmed. Normal times will slowly begin again.” A week later, Corbett posted a photo of herself getting a shot in the arm at the NIH Clinical Center.

“Today, I got the Moderna COVID vaccine. That is it. That is the caption. Mostly because everything I type makes me cry snotty-nosed tears, and I can’t find the right words. Just...Grateful. Happy. Hopeful,” she wrote. Corbett was not the only one overwhelmed by the moment. She had inspired such confidence in communities of color that Baptist minister and politician Jesse Jackson asked her to join him on his vaccine day at a community hospital in Chicago, IL, to help alleviate the fear, he said.

“The hospital in Chicago received 900 doses, and only 100 employees had taken the vaccine thus far,” Corbett explained on Instagram. “This hospital, which has fought to keep its funding previously, serves a 95% African American community,” she said. “There was … hesitancy. And Rev. Jackson said, ‘I can’t watch us be the first to die and last to take the vaccine.’ I was honored, humbled, and awed.”

Corbett’s most poignant post was made on the first day of Black History Month, indicating just how much it meant to be counted among the unsung women and men who have made significant contributions to America.

“This one, especially as my face is plastered on ppl’s Facebook home pages & I’m getting countless awards this month. But what if @BarneyGrahamMD didn’t pull out the seat at the table?! Passing all the flowers his way (except the yellow tulips, my fav lol).” 

“Kizzy is an African-American scientist who is right at the forefront of developing the vaccine. You might want to say that an African-

American woman developed the

vaccines you will be taking. And that is just the fact, and that is something that people do not fully appreciate.”