While it’s true that the COVID-19 vaccine was developed quickly, it does have enough safety and efficacy data to be trustworthy. Here’s why these companies were able to make life-saving COVID-19 vaccines so quickly:
Both Moderna and Pfizer used a method of vaccine creation that has been in development for several years, enabling both companies to start working on their vaccines early on in the pandemic.
Researchers did not skip any safety or testing steps; rather, they worked on more than one step at a time to enable them to gather the necessary information more quickly.
The first two vaccines to hit the market were developed using messenger RNA, or mRNA—a cutting-edge approach that is much faster than more old-fashioned ways of making vaccines.
Unlike less-common diseases, COVID-19 is very contagious and very widespread, so it only took a few months collect enough data to learn that the vaccines were effective.