Jessica Hill/AP Photo
- Scientists raced to develop COVID-19 vaccines at record speed.
- Vaccines often take years, and sometimes even decades, to develop, test, and approve for public use.
- Here's how long it took to develop vaccines for infectious diseases throughout history.
Across the world, scientists worked at record speed to develop a successful vaccine for the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 760 million people and killed over 6.9 million as of July 2023.