Researchers relied on years of previous research in other viruses and vaccines to help inform a vaccine development process for COVID-19.
Everyone involved dedicated all their resources and time to developing a COVID-19 vaccine. This includes research institutions, pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations.
Many governments around the world, including the U.S. government, and private funders invested in the vaccine, which allowed pharmaceutical companies to focus on research right away.
Finally, because of the financial support, researchers were able to conduct different parts of the development process on parallel tracks instead of one after another. Usually, each phase in a clinical trial ends before the next phase begins, with several months to a year or more in between each phase. Because of the emergency presented by the pandemic, researchers developed the vaccines on parallel tracks, meaning that they completed the necessary steps at the same time or with some overlap. No steps were skipped in the process of developing the COVID-19 vaccines.