I have a question for those of you in the know...
Considering how quickly and seemingly easy (I know that "easy" is probably not the right term, but still...) they came up with this vaccine, how is it that other virus' go on and on without ever having a vaccine developed for them? Say for instance HIV or Ebola?
Its largely about money, Yes the RNA vaccines were easier to design and create, but there is huge amount of costs in setting up GMP production and then the trials necessary to get by the FDA for any vaccine. Under normal circumstances vaccines these costs are mostly upfront from the Pharm/Biotech and there is significant risk that the vaccine won't work or have side effects, or the wave of infections that spurred development will subside and the company will be standing there holding a billion dollar bag. Pretty much the case for ebola and MERS vaccines.
Project Warp speed was effective because it basically pays the Pharms for a certain number of doses before the vaccine was even developed, so it pretty much took the risk out of the process for the Pharms. Even if there vaccine didn't work, they get paid enough to cover the development, production and trials . And there is even more upside, if they make an effective vaccine, even after they supply the first hundred or so million doses that they got paid for there is a 7 billion person market for more doses of the vaccine, so a big upside for a fast effective vaccine.. In my opinion the administration really did a good job removing the hurdles to rapid development, but left the development and production to the people who know the most about it. My guess is that if the control had shifted to the CDC from the Pharms, it would have been much slower and less innovative.
