A vaccine for a new disease usually takes more than ten years to be ready to be given to people. In the case of Ebola, which was fast- tracked, it took five years for a candidate vaccine to go into clinical trials. Vaccine development has moved exceptionally quickly since January when the causative agent of COVID-19 was identified. The first vaccines for COVID-19 were created and went through clinical trials in under a year. This was a record and was recognised by Science as the “2020 Breakthrough of the Year”.
How was this even possible without cutting corners?
Many of the traditional steps of vaccine development were contracted. Initially, many assumptions were made in the development of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine based on experience with other viruses. Vaccine makers learned from the experience with Ebola. In many ways, the world was fortunate that we were dealing with a coronavirus, because there were vaccine-development plans under way for MERS, another coronavirus….