How were COVID-19 vaccines developed so quickly?

The COVID-19 vaccine development progressed rapidly because of significant funding, years of prior research, and the urgency of the pandemic.

In the past, vaccines took years, or sometimes decades, to develop and test before enough evidence was available to demonstrate that they were safe and effective. The slow progress of the vaccine development process became the norm due to lack of adequate funding to advance more quickly, due to insufficient resources to accelerate the timeline, and due to the fact that only a small number of researchers and companies were working on vaccine development.

So how were COVID-19 vaccines developed so quickly?

The urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic required rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines without delay. By devoting more resources, funds, and efforts than ever before, and by testing more vaccine candidates than ever before, COVID-19 vaccine development became the top priority for many countries, companies, research groups, and health organizations.

As a result, the development process was accelerated – but not rushed! In fact, the technologies used to develop COVID-19 vaccines (including the mRNA platform) have been extensively studied for decades!