Blame the Resistance in the USG, i.e. FDA, NiAID etc for slow walking the clinical trial protocol. I think the government ran the trials and set the rules.
One thing that slowed Moderna down was USG telling them to slow down enrollment to get a more “diverse” group. Another was to wait 60 days after enrollment of half the test population to evaluate safety. A third was to use discrete offramps instead of continuous for evaluating efficacy. Since they were 95 % efficaceous they would have known it was working at over 50% weeks ago. I thought it would be very effective when they simply stated every single subject in phase one developed neutralizing antibodies, but everybody in the press pooh poohed the statement and criticised them for hype.
A senior member of Moderna’s research staff gave up his job and stock/options there to help lead Trump’s Operation Warp Speed. I don’t think they were trying to screw Trump.
Your post is PRECISELY ON TARGET. It’s our friendly foot-dragging federal bureaucrats delaying things as long as possible. Moderna is going at “warp speed” but with the Deep Staters making them slow down.