We have never seen anything like the COVID-19 pandemic.  So many problems popped up seemingly overnight.  From how we work and learn remotely, to how we make connections with others when we can’t physically see them, all these problems where once we didn’t have a solution to.  However, we prevailed against the impossible and found many solutions to our various problems but the biggest solution was the vaccine.

Producing a vaccine is a time consuming process, which typically takes on average ten to fifteen years.  The COVID-19 pandemic was produced in little more than months which can lead people to have speculation about the efficacy of the vaccine.  Despite the rush order on our solution, the COVID-19 is just as effective as prior vaccines that have taken years to develop, and this is why!

The COVID-19 was mainly able to be manufactured so quickly because of the time spent manufacturing previous vaccines.  The COVID vaccine was built upon the framework of past vaccines such as the measles vaccine.  If vaccination production was like cooking this means that we used an existing recipe and just swapped out some ingredients to create a new dish. 

Another reason the vaccine was able to be tested and distributed so quickly was due to the collaboration of scientists throughout the world.  The one perk of a global pandemic is that it fostered the spirit of collaboration in the scientific community.  Every country was drastically affected by coronavirus and as such had the motivation to end it through sharing their breakthroughs.  This allowed for fast development and production of a life-changing vaccine. 

The final reason we were able to produce a vaccine so quickly was due to firm government support.  Many governments throughout the world fast tracked vaccine production through financial and moral support.  This is very atypical in the vaccine production community. Many times the main hurdle in vaccine production is the government pushback and legal coursework.  Governmental support for the coronavirus vaccine allowed them to maintain their fast timeline. 

Just because it seems that the COVID-19 vaccine was perhaps “rushed” the science and safety behind it was not compromised.  The vaccine was produced so that we could try and get back to our lives full of family and work and activities and normal.  Pushing back against the vaccine is pushing back against a world of normalcy and a world of connected and caring people.