THE INVENTOR OF THE COVID VACCINE
In
2020 in the middle of the Covid crisis,
my mother called me and said she had
been watching the interview of a certain
Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna that was
responsible for the Moderna Covid
vaccine. She immediately recognized the
name Bancel and it reminded her of an
experience she had with a former client
of the High fashion designer Bruyere
where she worked as a young girl of 16
or 17 during the war. The more she
looked at that man on the TV screen, the
more she was struck by his resemblance
with her former client. There was
something about his nose. She said, ''I
have seen that nose before." Sure
enough, that man is Madame Bancel's
grandson.
Here is the story my mom
remembers: She was supposed to hand
deliver by cab some clothes
to Madame Bancel who lived
on the Avenue d'Iena, one of
the most prestigious and
affluent districts in Paris.
Coming from a very modest
background and living in
Maisons-Laffitte, my mother
had never seen anything like
Madame Bancel's apartment.
My mom had not been able to
do a lot of sightseeing in
her youth because the war
broke out in 1939. She had
only visited the Chateau of
Versailles. Entering the
endless hallway, she was
impressed by the numerous
and huge bay windows
overlooking the Eiffel Tower
and the Seine river. She did
not know that some people
could live in such a place.
Little did she know that,
many, many years later, one
of her customer's
descendants would save the
world from Covid by creating
a badly needed vaccine.