[OskarS]

Seems to me like maybe a more worthy recipient of this prize might be the vaccines that are currently saving hundreds of million of people from dying in the worst pandemic in a century? You know, the miracle vaccines that were developed many times faster than any other vaccine in history? The ones that (despite being perfectly safe, effective, and arguably the greatest achievement in medicine since antibiotics) are subject to an epidemic of skepticism, where a Nobel Prize could really help?

[MontyCarloHall]

In general the Nobel committee really dislikes awarding scientific prizes to applied research. People have been pointing out for years that they ignore this at their own detriment [0].

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat2602

[mlang23]

I stopped taking the nobel prize seriously when they awarded the peace nobel prize to Obama.

[Kelteseth]

We live in a world where the Nobel Peace Prize winner, bombed another Nobel Peace Prize winner.

- https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/asia/obama-apologiz...

[OskarS]

The Peace Prize has it’s fair share of whoppers (Henry Kissinger!), but the science ones are usually not quite that clueless. This oversight though, this one is pretty baffling to me.

[nairboon]

The peace prize is also very different from the science prizes. The peace prize is handed out by politicians (members of the Norwegian parliament), whereas the science prizes are handed out by scientists.

[tephra]

The members of the peace committee are _selected_ by Stortinget but no member of the committee currently serves as a member of parliament (although some are former members/politicians).

[jeltz]

Isn't that exactly why they should not give a prize for mRNA vaccines. The Norwegian Nobel Committee (the people who hand out the peace prize) has a history of handing out the prize too early (Obama, Arafat, etc) while the Swedish Research Council are much more cautious when handing out prizes.

[OskarS]

I don't think it's too early to say that the vaccines deserve it, given what they have already accomplished.

[jeltz]

I am sure people said the same for lobotomy back when Moniz won the prize. I am personally all for the mRNA vaccines and am vaccinated with Pfizer myself but I understand why they are cautious when handing out prizes. What harm is there in waiting a few years?