3 BLACK STUDENTS THAT HELPED DEVELOP THE FIRST COVID-19 VACCINE HAVE EMOTIONAL REUNION AT MOREHOUSE

By Tomas Kassahun, Blavity

Three Black students who helped develop the first COVID-19 vaccine reunited for the first time since the early pandemic days.

According to CNN, Olubukola Abiona, Geoffrey Hutchinson and Cynthia Ziwawo were among the dozens of scientists who helped develop the vaccines at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Working in Dr. Barney Graham’s lab at the research center, the students became a major part of the global effort to control the pandemic.

“We knew we were doing things that were important, but then it was like ‘Oh, wow, this is really big,’” Ziwawo told CNN.

The trio had an emotional reunion when they met at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta to attend the inaugural Dr. David Satcher Global Health Equity Summit. As the group reflected on their experience of developing the COVID-19 vaccine, Ziwawo recalled the moment when they first realized that the vaccine would work.

Ziwawo, who had the role of testing the antibodies that block the virus, said she “understood the gravity” of what they were doing when the tests revealed the response they were looking for.

Read more about the pioneering trio’s efforts.

Learn about the virus’s impact on the Black community here and here.

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