While COVID-19 vaccine development was called “Operation Warp Speed,” drug makers maintained all established quality and safety requirements required of all other vaccine and drug approvals. There are several reasons why the development of the vaccine occurred so quickly:

  • Early publication of the genomic sequence (based on SARS-I virus)
  • Use of messenger RNA ( mRNA) vaccine technology, which is faster than using live or killed virus particles
  • Known mRNA vaccine technology as it is the same technology used for the influenza vaccine
  • Fast recruitment of vaccine trial subjects
  • Unprecedented global funding resources & speed of regulatory approvals