Health care workers answer questions about the COVID-19 vaccines.
Noha Aboelata, MD explains how scientists were able to develop the COVID vaccines so quickly.
The vaccine development did happen quickly. Often times the vaccines take years to develop, and this one happened in a much-condensed timeframe with scientists sharing information in real time across the globe, all laser-focused on the same exact problem.
I think one of the things that’s been unique is so many people coming together and partnering in new ways. And I think doing things that previously we said, “Couldn’t be done.”
Another important part of course, is the money. The government essentially removed the risk for the vaccine company so that they could do several of their processes’ steps simultaneously instead of consecutively. And so that meant a much-expedited process but with respect to the clinical trials process that actually was more robust than even was required in terms of the number of people within those studies.
The fact that they included people of all different races and ethnicities, which actually they did a better job than usual in including different races, ethnicities, genders, age groups. They specifically included elders as well as people with different comorbid conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. And so, they really did a very robust and large clinical trials to establish the safety and the effectiveness and that part of the process is no different than any other vaccine process.
