system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
A vaccine for the 2009 H1N1 virus was developed in 3 months (from when it was declared a pandemic). What is different about COVID-19 that makes the required time to develop a vaccine 12-14 months?
gpt
H1N1 is a flu-variant and flu vaccines are developed every year. So researchers could base their work on existing flu vaccines. On the other hand, there is no such tested & safe vaccine on which to base the covid19 vaccine. There was some work done on a vaccine for SARS, which could be used as a starting point, but this work never led to a completed product because SARS was effectively contained and funding dried up because the need for a SARS vaccine went away.