FAQ

There are lots of rules around how medicines, including vaccines, are created, tested and made available to the public – and that is no different for the approved COVID-19 vaccines.
There a number of reasons why it was possible to develop the Covid-19 vaccines quickly compared to other medicines;

1.  Vaccines are developed through testing them over and over in different phases; the testing phases of the Covid-19 vaccines were run at the same time or overlapping, which sped up the process.
2. The data from the tests were made available quickly so experts at the MHRA could review it as the tests were being delivered and ask questions along the way, as opposed to getting all information at the end of a testing period.
3. The clinical trials for the Covid-19 vaccine managed to involve people very quickly as a global effort meant thousands of people were willing to volunteer.