> I think that, in a well-run civilization, the first covid vaccines would’ve been tested and approved by around March or April 2020, while mass-manufacturing simultaneously ramped up with trillions of dollars’ investment.

We have 60 clinical vaccines[1]. Which ones? All of them? The first one? The first dozen? You're going to see a bunch more of these types of arguments from hindsight in the coming months. The choice wasn't to approve or deny and then manufacture the vaccines we have today. It was to find the signal in the noise.

[1] https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-c...