Does the COVID-19 Vaccine Developed in Less Than a year Safe

Normally, it takes 10-15 years to develop a vaccine because of the complexity of vaccine development. The previous record was a mumps vaccine, which took four years to develop.

There are several reasons for the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccine.

First, scientists are not starting from beginning.

Although COVID-19 is a new disease, from SARS in late 2002 to MERS in 2012, scientists have been paying attention to and studying corona-virus, and have accumulated a lot of experience in research and development.

In the process, scientists at Oxford University provided the most important discovery for vaccine development, which was established before COVID-19: the corona-virus attaches, fuses and enters human cells through the spinous process protein (S protein). Thus, S protein was identified as the target of antibody therapy and vaccine development.

Scientists at the University of Oxford have been working on an adenovirus-based vaccine for MERS, which provided the necessary experimental experience and foundation for the development of an adenovirus vaccine for COVID-19, the later AstraZeneca adenovirus vector vaccine.

Secondly, unprecedented international research cooperation.

About 10 days after the discovery of COVID-19, Chinese scientists published the sequencing results of the COVID-19 in early January 2020. Based on this, Moderna in the United States confirmed the design of the vaccine within a week. The overall development of global bio-medicine has played a very good role in promoting.

Thirdly, research and development funds are abundant.

Vaccines are expensive to develop, and vaccines don't make much money. This has also affected the progress of previous vaccine development to some extent.

The development of COVID-19 vaccine is significantly different. For example, the United States has developed a series of high-quality vaccines, which are closely related to the Rapid Action (OWS). A national effort, supported by state funding, brought together the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and potential vaccine companies. The European Union has similarly funded several vaccine candidates. Britain has set up a vaccine task force.

Fourthly, because of the outbreak.

China's vaccine development has been delayed by the effective control of the epidemic on the mainland, but the outbreak of the epidemic overseas has still enabled the completion of phase 3 clinical trials.