Part of the nswer is that....

... in 'normal' times the majority of researchers working on medicines/drugs spend most of their time writing applications for funding. I heard a guy on the radio recently saying that some 5 out of 10 years work was taken up with this. Also, research teams are very small.

With COVID nearly every government and research institution has thrown the kitchen sink at developing a vaccine... So, lots of researchers and money no object. It doesn't mean that anyone from the science community has cut corners... that's what politicians do.

Posted By: Moritz Moutarde, Dec 2, 13:13:54