Understood - but there’s nothing inconsistent or unusual about it - that comes after, not before. The world was already abuzz by that point about COVID-19. So I’m not sure what point you were trying to make with your initial post. It was also already well known that mRNA technology for producing vaccines had been underway for a very long time before that as well.
The virus was described as in the wild in November of 2019. That Moderna got it before anyone was confirmed to have it as something different from a flu, is bizarre, period.