@jayctoy - You were misinformed then. These mRNA vaccines are indeed vaccines. They stimulate the production of T and B lymphocytes that key on the spike protein the RNA codes for -that is what vaccines *do*, evoke the immune response. This mRNA platform has been in development for over a decade, and its whole thrust is to be able to rapidly adjust *the platform* to code for different proteins, and thus for different organisms and viruses. There is nothing, whatsoever, in the vaccine that's *from* the virus itself. Unlike Flu where portions of the deactivated virus are used to stimulate the immune response, the mRNA vaccine does it by having the patient cells build and express the spike protein that forms part of the viral capsule. It's not FROM the virus, as traditional vaccines are, hence its ludicrous for anyone to claim you can get COVID from the vaccine. Literally impossible. With mRNA platform you need only isolate a protein, or proteins from the viral coat, code the mRNA strand to produce the protein, and incorporate that into the delivery platform.
This is totally different than virus based vaccines, like Influenza that require infecting chicken eggs and growing the virus so it can be harvested and deactivated, and purified. Or the Smallpox vaccine which is very old tech using a live virus as the sensitizing agent. Smallpox is caused by a Variola virus while the vaccine is a live Vaccinia virus (hence the name Vaccine) that's related to cow/monkey/camel pox. Again, you have to grow the virus (and they are very picky about growth media, unlike bacteria), and *that* is the rate limiting step for development, clinical trials, and commercial manufacturing. COVID is the proof of concept vaccine for the mRNA platform, and will likely overtake all old platforms going forward.
It is absolutely true that had this not been a pandemic, approval would not have been fast-tracked the same way it was, and FDA would've required longer phase 3 studies before approval (in this case an EUA), because they are very risk averse. However, the data now available on the mRNA vaccines vastly, by orders of magnitude, exceeds the the data available prior to approval of any other vaccine. Keep in mind also that there have been Phase 1 and 2 studies being conducted under INDs (investigation new drug application) for the mRNA platform for over a half-dozen years, and all that data was before FDA for years prior to any use for COVID. This was not developed in a year, that's just a fact, easily verifiable by anyone.
