The US, and many others, had been pulling mRNA vaccine technology out of their collective asses for decades, and testing the living shit out of it along the way.

The idea that the COVID vaccine just appeared out of nowhere is an easy conclusion to make because this work was not widely known in the general public. Then a bunch of con artists amplified that sentiment to retain their waning power.

It was more a situation of;

Science/Pharma: We've been researching this new type of vaccine that will be a game-changer for all sorts of diseases and we've just about got it figured out, then we can tell everyone about it.

CDC/FDA: 95% is good enough for this new disease 'cause it is wrecking shit and we have no idea how bad it will get if we do nothing.

Science/Pharma: Shit, yeah that's bad. We plugged the new disease's DNA into our thing and it made this vaccine, here you go.

Since the common cold and COVID are more-or-less cousins, I'm also holding out hope that we cure the common cold in the next decade. Or at least keep it so well contained that most of us don't even think about it anymore.

Edit: fixed a small but important word.