The fine print on my t-shirt says, “RNA Saves the Day.” I bought the shirt almost three years ago, to celebrate my trips to the Texas Motor Speedway for my first two COVID shots.

But here we are three years later, with vaccine misinformation still percolating through the population. Most recently, the State Surgeon General of Florida warned against mRNA vaccines, claiming the vaccines are contaminated with DNA fragments.

Know what else is “contaminated” with harmless DNA fragments? The food you eat.

Even before their release, alarmists were pre-refusing the mRNA vaccines: It’s too fast! No one wants an experimental vaccine!

Just for fun, let’s look at what was happening in the before-times, the years before covid flipped our world.

In the days before shutdowns and paper towel shortages, researchers were knee-deep investigating the use of mRNA in treating a myriad of diseases. Of particular interest were diseases caused by inborn metabolic errors.

For example, people born with a glycogen storage disease do not make the protein needed to release sugar from storage between meals. If these people do not eat every hour or two (including all through the night), they risk life-threatening low blood sugar.

What if mRNA could be used to teach the body to produce the missing protein? Researchers were on it.

Already mRNA was being injected directly into heart muscle during open-heart surgery, instructing the heart to build new vessels to circumvent clogged arteries.

And personalized cancer treatments using mRNA had an astounding turn-around of 45 days from development to patient.

So, when the genetic sequence of the COVID virus was published in January 2020, it only took two days for vaccine scientists to decide which of the COVID spikes to target.

One hour – that’s all it took to design the mRNA for the spike used in the vaccines. Forty-five days later, the NIH began vaccine development.

It wasn’t speedy because scientists were careless. It was speedy because they weren’t starting from scratch.

And research hasn’t stopped.

In a clinical trial of melanoma patients, one group was given Moderna’s mRNA melanoma therapy along with a biologic that enhances immune response. Another group was given the biologic alone.

Three years after treatment, patients who received the mRNA therapy in addition to the biologic saw a 49% reduction in the risk of melanoma recurrence or death and a 62% reduction in the risk of metastasis or death compared to those who received only the biologic .

That’s huge.

Saving the day, indeed.