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.