OPs point is that because of covid-19 we quickly threw trillions (?) of dollars at the problem, and without covid-19 the funding/attention/determination/man-power etc would be much less.

I probably read too much into their usage of the flu as an example. But yes, mRNA will lead to benefits beyond COVID. Some of the computational techniques developed for COVID will likely assist other drug discovery and development processes.

Yes, but many of new therapies, such as mRNA vaccines, were slow to receive approval, and have been sitting on the drawing board for a decade

Agreed, but it was given a temporary emergency approval due to the pandemic. We need long term data on technologies before we immunize hundreds of millions of people with it.

Huh? How many millions have been immunized so far with it?

What question did you have for me? I see your comment as a statement.

The point is clear you said

> We need long term data on technologies before we immunize hundreds of millions of people with it.

But we have already done this, hundreds of millions of people have received the mRNA vaccines.

We don't have long term (5+ years) data though, which was my point. It was authorized as an emergency measure due to the pandemic.

Sure, but maybe the flu isn't the best example. I'm long MRNA and big fan of the vaccine's technology. It was a biochem nerd dream getting my first shot!