The mRNA vaccine process has been developed over the last 10 years or so. The actual spike protein was identified early, so the main work was to create the mRAN

The mRNA vaccine process has been developed over the last 10 years or so. The actual spike protein was identified early, so the main work was to create the mRAN sequence for that protein. Not easy but the tools have gotten much better in recent years. This was the first large-scale use of this kind of vaccine so it is an amazing field test of the process. Normally that would be a slower, incremental process but the risk from Covid forced them to simplify and speed up the process.