How Were The Vaccines Developed?

It Took a Lot of Money and Resources

Quick Summary: To get safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines developed quickly, a ton of money was spent, and a lot of scientists worked on it.

One of the reasons that most vaccines take longer to develop is that there aren’t a lot of people working on them. Because COVID-19 is a pandemic, many wealthy countries wanted this vaccine to be developed because suddenly they were at risk. COVID-19 impacts everyone, which meant wealthy governments cared enough to put a ton of money into it, and a bunch of scientists who would normally be doing other things started working on it. It is a sad truth that diseases that only infect countries with fewer resources or people whose governments don’t care as much about them do not get developed as quickly. Although this is a sad reality, it does explain why the COVID-19 vaccine was released so quickly. In the 1980s and 1990s, people in power in the United States and other wealthy countries thought that HIV and AIDS only impacted LGBTQ+ people and people in Africa, so they didn't care and didn't put much money or work into developing vaccines or treatments. For COVID-19, they put in the work they should have put in for HIV and AIDS from the start.

Applying the Science to HIV Vaccines

Quick Summary: Based on some of the new things learned when making the COVID-19 vaccines, new HIV vaccines have been developed.

Scientists learned a lot from the development of the COVID-19 vaccines. We knew generally how to make mRNA vaccines, but from COVID-19, we learned how to perfect the process for retroviruses in particular. Retroviruses are a specific kind of virus—the most famous retrovirus is HIV—and thanks to what was learned from developing the COVID-19 vaccine, scientists are now developing and safely testing an HIV vaccine.

Introduction

How Do the Vaccines Work?

How Were the Vaccines Developed?

Why Get Vaccinated?

Risks: COVID-19 vs. Vaccines

The Vaccination Process

Closing