Medic goes viral with analogy comparing vaccine scientists to athletes

A University medic has gone viral with a message about the importance of the coronavirus vaccine, likening the efforts to develop the jab to an athlete’s lifelong preparation before winning a trophy.

The video of Dr Caroline O’Neal, chief medical officer at Louisiana State University has been viewed more than two million times on Twitter in three days.

In the clip, Dr O’Neal explains how vaccines prevent the spread of variants such as the Delta strand, which is currently spreading rapidly around the United States.

She said vaccines were key to reducing the spread and therefore the likelihood of further variants developing.

Addressing concerns from those who believe the various vaccines to combat the virus were developed too quickly, Dr O’Neal pointed out that they were only produced quickly thanks to a “lifetime of work” on MrNA vaccines before the pandemic.

She illustrated this point with an analogy about an American footballer who had reached the National Championship.

She said: “For most of us who are the average sports fan, we actually think it was just that season’s practice that got them there.

“Absolutely not – it was the first person who put them there when they were three years old. They have been practicing and working every single day, not just that season.

“That’s what this Covid-19 vaccine is. We have been working for decades to make sure that when we had a pandemic, we took it out of our back pocket and we said ‘we’re ready’.”