Pandemic
In nothing doth man offend God,
save those who confess not his hand in all things.
D&C 59:21
The rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine was not a coincidence. It was the result of years of careful preparation—scientific insight unfolding quietly, long before the global crisis began. Rather than a sudden breakthrough, it was the fruit of sustained effort, careful observation, and divine foreknowledge.
For decades, researchers had studied earlier coronaviruses, including SARS-1 and MERS. These pathogens infect human cells using spike-shaped surface proteins—structures that function like molecular hands, reaching for and gripping receptor doors on the surface of our cells. To defend itself, the immune system learns to recognize these viral hands and blocks them with antibodies, preventing infection. But viruses, ever adaptive, evolved a way to hide. By opening and closing their spikes rapidly, they mask their vulnerable parts from detection—a phenomenon we immunologists call conformational masking. This instability makes coronaviruses exceptionally difficult to target with vaccines.
Yet shortly before COVID-19 appeared, scientists made a breakthrough. Using structural imaging and insights from past vaccine work with HIV and RSV, they figured out how to hold the viral hand open by introducing two key mutations using a rigid amino acid, proline. This “2P” mutation locks the spike in the open configuration, making it stable, visible, and highly immunogenic. First tested against MERS in animals, this engineered spike became the template for the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. It led to dramatically higher antibody responses, broader protection, and better manufacturing yield—all discovered just before SARS-CoV-2 emerged.
This timing was no accident. It was a tender mercy—a preparation made before the crisis came. And yet, when the blessing arrived, many refused it. Misinformation, fear, and contention led countless people to reject the very protection that God had placed within reach. Despite a clear and compassionate plea from President Russell M. Nelson and the First Presidency, many also among the Saints ignored prophetic counsel and some sadly paid with their lives.
Worse still, the spirit of distrust continues to spread. Public confidence in vaccines—not only for COVID-19, but for diseases such as measles, rubella, and polio—is steadily eroding. When we reject divine gifts simply because they arrive through scientific means, we risk turning away from the very instruments God has prepared for our preservation.
Revelation does not always thunder from Sinai.
Sometimes, it emerges quietly beneath the lens of a microscope.