Profile in Courage: Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire

Five years ago, the coronavirus pandemic was wreaking havoc across the country. Around the time that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the first COVID-19 vaccine, the deadly disease was causing more than 3,000 daily deaths in the U.S. Countless hospitalizations, widespread economic calamity, and counterproductive government measures exacted a heavy toll on Americans. With all the current anti-vaccine rhetoric, it is easy to forget the scores of talented scientists who produced multiple vaccines capable of beating back the virus.

One such researcher, viral immunologist Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, worked tirelessly to help accomplish a feat that would ordinarily have taken a decade. Through her collaborations with private industry, Dr. Corbett-Helaire used her knowledge of microbiology and immunology to help produce an mRNA vaccine that could defeat the deadly disease. This work is unfortunately being called into question by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and FDA leadership intent on rolling back vaccine access. Despite these reckless acts, the achievements of Dr. Corbett-Helaire and others will not soon be forgotten by millions of grateful Americans.

When asked in interviews, famed individuals will often point to a professional role model who preceded them and gave them the inspiration they needed to be who they would become. But this was a trickier proposition for Dr. Corbett-Helaire, who wanted to get into a field that didn’t exactly look like her. As The News & Reporter contributor Kate Murphy notes, “As a teenager growing up in Hillsborough, [North Carolina,] Kizzmekia Corbett had never seen a Black scientist before.” This changed when she met fellow PhD student Albert Russell in the lab while completing her doctorate at the University of North Carolina.

Dr. Corbett-Helaire recounts, “Al was a Black man. At such an impressionable age, seeing, through him, that becoming a scientist was an attainable goal was what stood out to me the most. This left me with an understanding of the necessity of visible representation in underserved communities, and the realization that one’s approach to mentorship is equally as important as (or arguably more important than) their approach to scientific discovery.” She realized from that point on not just that she could succeed in the scientific world, but also the need to pay it forward and be an inspiration to the next generation.

This drive and determination led to her role as a leading scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she studied how viruses originate and proliferate. Dr. Corbett-Helaire hit the ground running at the NIH, studying viruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Insights from her years in the laboratory proved invaluable as COVID-19 rapidly spread around the globe. Dr. Corbett-Helaire and her team wasted no time studying the virus, and human trials commenced just two months after the virus was sequenced. As they were busy trying to understand the virus and figure out how to prevent it, the world grappled with the worst pandemic in 100 years. Business shuttered and unemployment surged above 14 percent. Suicides spiked and patients died alone with no one allowed to attend their funerals. But the U.S. and the world was able to put the virus behind it, thanks in large part to the scientific accomplishments of Dr. Corbett-Helaire and the private companies she collaborated with.

Unfortunately, current leadership at the HHS and FDA is determined to undermine the work of Dr. Corbett-Helaire and others. In August, the FDA announced that it approved the latest iteration of COVID-19 vaccines, but with new restrictions. Approval is now limited to seniors and younger Americans with at least one underlying health condition that increases their risk of severe COVID-19 infection. The FDA is also demanding that every new iteration of a COVID shot “use[s] a true placebo control (salt water) so we will learn the side-effect profile.” These changes will drastically limit patient choice, hamper health, and raise costs for taxpayers.

Because the FDA has limited vaccine approval, millions of Americans now require prescriptions to get boosters—instead of being able to walk into a pharmacy and get a booster as they choose. While people can disagree whether zero boosters or five is the “correct” number to get, that decision should be for patients, not bureaucrats, to make.

Now more than ever, Americans need scientists such as Dr. Corbett-Helaire determined to study, help produce, and explain the benefits of new vaccines. For being a light amid the darkness and helping the world conquer the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Corbett-Helaire is absolutely a Profile in Courage.