Operation Warp Speed

Operation Warp Speed (OWS) was a Trump Administration era program that enabled for the swift development, production and delivery of vaccines that were to be used to inoculate the population against the COVID-19 "China Virus" pandemic that struck the United States in 2020. OWS was conceived by Department of Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar, a former pharmaceutical company executive who understood the motivations, risk tolerance and complexities of drug development, manufacturing and distribution. It was immediately embraced by President Trump, who ensured financial resources, attention, talent, and government support required for the initiatives success.

Officially announced on May 15, 2020, President Trump unveiled details of a "warp-speed" effort to create a Coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year. Trump stated, "That means big and it means fast. A massive scientific, industrial and logistical endeavour unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project." The program promoted the fast-track development and mass production of vaccines with multiple vaccine developers for distribution throughout the United States. However, at the onset, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases warned, "There’s no guarantee that the vaccine is actually going to be effective," in testimony to Congress. During the summer of 2020, the U.S. government began financing the manufacturing of up to 3 billion vaccines, months prior to any vaccine being granted Emergency Use Authorization.

During the Trump Administration - from May 2020 to January 2021, the program was headed by Dr. Moncef Slaoui. A number of other noteworthy leaders joined Slaoui in the efforts, including Carlo de Notaristefani, a distinguished pharmaceutical manufacturing expert, Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health, who oversaw the clinical trials, Generals Perna, Ostrowski, and Sharpsten from the Army Logistics Command and Dr. Anita Patel of the CDC, who together organized the distribution and administration of vaccines and Jared Kushner, who served as White House liaison.

Through unprecedented efforts and removal of obstacle procedural hurdles, multiple vaccines were developed, distributed and administered within months of the first discovered case of the virus in the United States. The vaccines developed at "warp-speed" were eventually deemed to be safe and effective, and were provided to the public "free-of-charge."

Outbreak and Response

The first discovered/confirmed case of the novel coronavirus outbreak SARS-COV-2, aka COVID-19 in the United States, was documented on January 21, 2020. Announced on January 31, 2020 and later enforced on February 2, 2020, Trump advocated for a complete ban on travel from mainland China and barred foreign nationals who had recently visited China from entering the United States, as his administration continued to assess the growing threat of a potential coronavirus outbreak.

Project "MP2", which was later announced as Operation Warp Speed on May 15, 2020, was soon established and multiple companies were financed for the development of vaccines. Under Trump's guidance, the U.S. government purchased initial batches of vaccines from Moderna, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi, Pfizer, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca before knowing whether they would be safe or effective.

The Research Vaccine Testing and Approval Process was complete by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. The FDA issued Emergency Use Authorization's and the initial distribution of two approved vaccines was accomplished during the final months of President Trump's presidency. In December 2020, the first vaccine was authorized for distribution, just days immediately following the 2020 Presidential election.

American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech collaborated and developed the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna developed the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine. Both vaccines, based on messenger Ribonucleic Acid (mRNA) technology, were authorized by the FDA, shortly after the 2020 Presidential election was held. Following FDA approval, distribution began immediately via prearranged methods organized by the Trump Administration's COVID-19 task force.

Distribution and administration of vaccines was initially accomplished by partnering with private-sector companies that included, McKesson, UPS, FedEx, CVS Health, and Walgreens. Tiberius, a sophisticated vaccine-tracking system was developed. Over 40,000 pharmacy locations, thousands of Community Health Centers, and thousands of hospitals were eventually enrolled, and electronically linked. Distribution and administration of the vaccines was initially hindered and/or rejected by some local state electorate engaged in political opposition to President Trump's objectives. New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed to work with other governors to block Trump's COVID-19 vaccine distribution, "before it does damage".

In October, 2020, (then candidate) Kamala Harris was hesitant and skeptical about taking the Trump's Warp Speed - COVID-19 vaccine.

The COVID-19 vaccines were administered by a variety of healthcare professionals that included: doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physicians assistants, and pharmacy technicians. These professionals received training on how to administer the vaccine and how to manage the very rare side effects of the vaccines. The first U.S. vaccinations for COVID-19 were administered on December 14, 2020. Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse was the first inoculated, via the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, in New York during a livestreamed event with Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

In December 2020, Admiral Brett Giroir, who was on the White House COVID-19 task force, reported that the country was on track to distribute 20 million vaccine doses, at least, by the first week of January 2021 and that approximately 30 million more doses were projected for the rest of January and another 50 million in February 2021. Additionally, it was reported that a third single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Johnson & Johnson / Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, could be approved for distribution as soon as January 2021. The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine was ultimately issued Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA in February 2021 and began shipping immediately, with plans to deliver more than 20 million doses in the U.S. in March 2021.

In the final days of the Trump Administration, conservative radio talk-show host and journalist Howie Carr acknowledged and thanked President Trump for the effort, stating, in part, in an open letter published in the Boston Herald:

"Thank you, Mr. President, for everything you’ve done... Thank you for Operation Warp Speed, an amazing achievement for which you will never receive the appropriate credit."

Operation Warp Speed was active through February 24, 2021, for a total of 285 days, disbanded and then transferred into the responsibilities of the so-called White House COVID-19 Response Team.

Many members of the liberal mainstream media have attributed the success of OWS to some sort of miracle, a deus ex machina that was introduced merely to unravel the mysteries of vaccine development and manufacturing. However, it was stated by the Trump administration's deputy chief of staff in the Department of Health and Human Services Paul Mango, that "In fact, the success of OWS was a function of exceptional leadership, a deliberate strategy, and exacting execution."

On May 25, 2021, in a message posted on the "Save America" web blog From the Desk of Donald J. Trump, the former President acknowledged the effort and continuing progress:

"New United States COVID cases, because of the record-breaking development of the vaccine and its early purchase and distribution by the Trump Administration, has hit its lowest level in more than one year, and falling fast. I want to thank all within the Trump Administration who pushed so hard for a vaccine and got it done in less than nine months when everybody was saying it would take at least 3-5 years, and probably not happen. Without the vaccine the world would be a much different place right now. Thank you also to the U.S. Military for its incredible distribution and logistical planning. Operation Warp Speed and our decision to purchase billions of dollars of vaccine before it was even approved, has been “One of the greatest miracles of the ages,” according to many. Thank you!"

External links

• https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Operation-Warp-Speed/#, U.S. Dept. of Defense
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Operation_Warp_Speed.png, US DoD Logo/seal, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons