this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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That's because most of the groundwork in developing mrna vaccines had already been done for years and years. This wasn't "how do we invent a vaccine for covid?", this was "how do we adapt this proven, well-understood vaccine tech so that it works for covid just like it does for the ebola virus that we originally developed it for?"
There was also a large amount of money thrown at developing the vaccine because of the virus' significant economic impacts.
it's wild because it was a whole bunch of our money but somehow the vaccine developed with all of our money is still privately owned
Imagine if we had national bodies developing drugs to treat health problems rather than private companies developing drugs to make as much money as possible.
instead we have this amazing worst of both worlds where the public bears all the expense but one guy trying to make as much money as possible gets to make all the decisions and own the final product.
Thats the answer to the bit where they said "how do we adapt this proven, well understood vaccine tech..."