And the reason we have that data in such a short period of time is horrifying for exactly the expected reason.
You are obliged to conduct a natural experiment. We do this thing (vaccination) we expect will work, on some fraction of a test population, and then we wait. Some other tricks could work, in theory but they're often unethical and unlike this experiment they aren't a direct model of the real world. "Does it actually work?" is an incontrovertible test.
But it should take years to do this, because obviously hardly anybody is going to get some horrible deadly infectious disease right?
Unless, as happened in most of the world, you have exponential pandemic case growth as measures to prevent spread are half-arsed or just not implemented at all.
Then it turns out - good news - that's a great environment for proving your vaccine works quickly. Shame about all the dead people though.
Yes, but - playing Devil's advocate here, I'm a solid believer that vaccination is our best chance out of this - the opposite is also true: because the disease is so virulent we are willing to play fast and loose with researching long-term side-effects. And unfortunately, the conspiracy theory circles are already full of bullshit about supposed side-effects of the vaccines (one I've seen a lot is that 'women may become temporarily infertile'), despite every trial not showing any such side-effects.
Do you have any source that on " (one I've seen a lot is that 'women may become temporarily infertile'), despite every trial not showing any such side-effects.". I want to forward it to the ppl I know who heard this. To show this, they need to monitor the conception rate after vaccination with the control group. Is this actually monitored? (what I sometimes found that 'no evidence' means 'we do not have data';like they claim in German trains no transmission has ever been found; spoiler, they didnt register and check names of passengers)
You are obliged to conduct a natural experiment. We do this thing (vaccination) we expect will work, on some fraction of a test population, and then we wait. Some other tricks could work, in theory but they're often unethical and unlike this experiment they aren't a direct model of the real world. "Does it actually work?" is an incontrovertible test.
But it should take years to do this, because obviously hardly anybody is going to get some horrible deadly infectious disease right?
Unless, as happened in most of the world, you have exponential pandemic case growth as measures to prevent spread are half-arsed or just not implemented at all.
Then it turns out - good news - that's a great environment for proving your vaccine works quickly. Shame about all the dead people though.