it is totally unclear to me how we would plausibly create a vaccine on a short (“a few months”) timescales.
“Create a vaccine” is somewhat ambiguous. There are already several (dozens?) of vaccines undergoing clinical trials so, in one sense, we’ve already created vaccines. There are several vaccine technologies that are well understood that can be used to quickly produce a vaccine. In the sense of developing, producing (at scale), and administering a vaccine – to a large number of people – that’s (much) less plausible (or possible) given ‘civilizational (in)adequacy’.
“Create a vaccine” is somewhat ambiguous. There are already several (dozens?) of vaccines undergoing clinical trials so, in one sense, we’ve already created vaccines. There are several vaccine technologies that are well understood that can be used to quickly produce a vaccine. In the sense of developing, producing (at scale), and administering a vaccine – to a large number of people – that’s (much) less plausible (or possible) given ‘civilizational (in)adequacy’.