Is Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 shot the fastest produced vaccine in history?

A look at how long it took for earlier vaccines to go from lab to licensed

The United Kingdom on Wednesday became the first country to approve a vaccine against the novel coronavirus. Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine is the first shot to be approved for roll out. And it took them just about four months to develop the vaccine. The two firms will rollout a total of 140 million vaccine shots by the end of 2021.

Read | How the world has sped up Covid-19 vaccine approvals

While it is a known fact that developing a vaccine for any virus may take years, some of the vaccines in the history were rolled out for public in the shortest possible time. The fastest vaccine production time so far, has been for the Mumpsvax, which Maurice Hilleman took four years to produce. Should the Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine -- with a success rate of 95% -- prove to be effective in combating the virus, it could very well become the fastest produced vaccine in history.

Here's a look at how long it took for a vaccine to go from lab to licensed, for four other diseases and epidemics:

Ebolavirus epidemic

The Ebolavirus was first discovered in 1976, near the Ebola river in present-day Democartic Republic of Congo. Being a zoonotic virus, it can be transferred from animals to humans. Its most recent outbreak occured in August 2018, preceded by the outbreaks across Western Africa between 2014 and 2016. The virus causes fever, body aches, diarrhoea, and internal and external bleeding. While a number of vaccines were administered in the it's deadliest outbreak, it wasn't until late 2019 that a vaccine was finally approved. The Ebola Zaire vaccine was first approved by the European Commission in November, followed by the Food and Drug Administration in December.

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Polio epidemic

The Poliovirus was first discovered during a poliovirus epidemic in the United States in 1894. The virus is transmitted through contaminated water or through the saliva of an infected person, and leads to potentially fatal paralysis. The first polio vaccine was developed by American Jonas Salk in 1954, followed by the oral polio vaccine in the 1960s by Albert Sabin. The vaccines were initially administered in the United States, United Kingdom and other European countries. As of today, polio has nearly been eradicated almost all over the world, with cases having gone down by 99% since 1988.

Smallpox

Smallpox was discovered as early as the 3rd century BE, and is caused by two viruses, Variola major and Variola minor. The virus is said to cause flu-like symptoms and form rashes on the face, hands, and torso. Englishman Edward Jennings was the first to treat the disease and in the process create the vaccine, which is the first successful vaccine to have ever been produced. The disease was declared as eradicated in May 1980.

Yellow Fever

Yellow fever has been around since the 16th century and was first recorded in the United States. Over the centuries, it made it's way across the Americas, before eventually reaching the continent of Africa, where a sizeable amount of the population have suffered the disease. The disease is spread by three species of mosquitoes, and causes jaundice among infected patients, hence the name. Having begun the development in 1930, Max Thieler successfully finished engineering the vaccination in 1936-37. Thereafter. Thieler was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1951, the only instance where it was bestowed upon for the production of a vaccine.