Whose vaccine helped prevent COVID-19 using mRNA technology?

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman were central to the scientific breakthrough that made mRNA vaccines practical by modifying RNA to reduce harmful immune reactions. This work helped enable the first widely deployed mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, authorized in late 2020. The vaccines were developed at extraordinary speed because earlier basic science, viral sequencing, and global collaboration had already laid the groundwork. They became a landmark in vaccine history and were used worldwide to reduce severe illness and death.