The time frame to create a vaccine is too tight. The only ways to stop an epidemic, without a vaccine, is to quarantine and to reduce travel. During the Influenza epidemic 100 years ago they cut transportation (especially public transit, closed schools, closed places where the public could spread the disease such as stores and theaters, etc.). There are also antibiotics to fight secondary infections. Most importantly, unlike 1918 the world isn’t suffering from a large number people whose health has been compromised by a massive war.
