But the whole premise <-- let me elaborate: The person taking the vaccine is not the customer, the customer is the person deciding which vaccines are required to avoid social exclusion. So vaccines can NEVER be tested in a free market the way something like aspirin or ibuprofen is.

Therefore, the "success" of a vaccine has nothing to do with how well it works (if at all), but rather how good the company is at lobbying. In fact the smartest vaccine maker will put essentially zero effort into making it, just enough to bang out a patent, and put all of their effort into getting it recognized by governments.