A complementary story to the one about Karikó is one about a researcher in Texas who, prior to the pandemic, kept getting his grant proposals for a coronavirus

A complementary story to the one about Karikó is one about a researcher in Texas who, prior to the pandemic, kept getting his grant proposals for a coronavirus vaccine denied because "no one cares about coronaviruses". I'd link to articles about it but right now searching for anything having to do with Texas, coronavirus, and vaccine, is buried in articles about Texas vaccine politics. But you're right — Karikó's story is textbook, prototypical, and its strength is its greatest weakness, that it's almost abnormally illuminated. We never know about all the other stories out there that aren't lucky enough to be exposed so clearly.