Vaccine Development - Safety, Speed, and Types
The vaccines for COVID-19 have broken all previous records for the fastest development till distribution - going from development to approval in a matter of months. While the vaccine for Mumps took 4 years for development, 13 years for polio and 27 years for the flu, most COVID-19 vaccines are developed only in a year. This speed is driven by global efforts and billions of dollars. In some cases, it is also because of breakthroughs in vaccine technology, decades in making: something that could shrink this timeline going forward, and change how vaccines are developed altogether. Vaccines educate the immune system on how to respond in the event of a threat. There have historically been four ways of accomplishing this. The two most common approaches include exposing your immune system to a weakened (Live-Attenuated) or dead (Inactivated) form of the virus or bacteria, which will not make you sick but will teach your body how to combat the actua...