My understanding is that the correct line is something like, “The COVID-19 vaccines were developed and approved unprecedentedly fast, excluding influenza vaccines.” If you want to find examples of short vaccine development, you don’t need to go all the way back to the 1957 influenza pandemic. For the 2009 Swine flu pandemic,
Analysis of the genetic divergence of the virus in samples from different cases indicated that the virus jumped to humans in 2008, probably after June, and not later than the end of November,[38] likely around September 2008… By 19 November 2009, doses of vaccine had been administered in over 16 countries.
And more obviously, the flu shot is modified yearly to keep up-to-date with new variants. Wikipedia notes that influenza vaccines were first successfully distributed in the 1940s, after developement began in 1931.
When considering vaccines other than influenza shot, this 2017 EA forum post from Peter Wildeford is informative. He tracks the development history of “important” vaccines, as he notes,
This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all vaccines, but is intended to be exhaustive of all vaccines that would be considered “important”, such as the vaccines on the WHO list of essential medicines and notable vaccines under current development.
His bottom line:
Taken together and weighing these three sources of evidence evenly, this suggests an average of 29 years for the typical vaccine.
No vaccine on his list had been researched, manufactured, and distributed in less than one year. The closest candidate is the Rabies vaccine, which had a 4 year timeline, from 1881-1885.
My understanding is that the correct line is something like, “The COVID-19 vaccines were developed and approved unprecedentedly fast, excluding influenza vaccines.” If you want to find examples of short vaccine development, you don’t need to go all the way back to the 1957 influenza pandemic. For the 2009 Swine flu pandemic,
And more obviously, the flu shot is modified yearly to keep up-to-date with new variants. Wikipedia notes that influenza vaccines were first successfully distributed in the 1940s, after developement began in 1931.
When considering vaccines other than influenza shot, this 2017 EA forum post from Peter Wildeford is informative. He tracks the development history of “important” vaccines, as he notes,
His bottom line:
No vaccine on his list had been researched, manufactured, and distributed in less than one year. The closest candidate is the Rabies vaccine, which had a 4 year timeline, from 1881-1885.