https://news.yahoo.com/truth-trump-operation-warp-speed-103059422.html
The Truth about Trump’s Operation Warp Speed
Millions of people across the United States have already received doses of vaccines against coronavirus — vaccines developed as part of Operation Warp Speed (OWS), the project conceived, initiated, resourced, and largely executed under Trump administration leadership. Daily, millions more join their ranks. But listening to members of the liberal media and the Biden administration, one could be forgiven for not clearly understanding the pivotal role leaders within the Trump administration, along with private-sector partners, played in developing, manufacturing, and delivering over 300 million safe and effective vaccines in less than one year to the American people.
OWS was conceived in the spring of 2020 by Department of Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar, a former pharmaceutical company executive who deeply understood the motivations, risk tolerance, and complexities of drug development, manufacturing, and distribution. It was immediately embraced by President Trump, who ensured we had the financial resources, attention, talent, and government support required for success. Shortly thereafter, we added a number of other exceptional leaders: Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the most accomplished vaccine developer of our generation, Generals Perna, Ostrowski, and Sharpsten from the Army Logistics Command, and Carlo de Notaristefani, a distinguished pharmaceutical manufacturing expert, Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health, who oversaw the clinical trials, and Jared Kushner as our White House liaison. This country owes the vaccines we have to this team of leaders.
The OWS strategy required the U.S. government to assume the financial risk for manufacturing the vaccines. Normally, manufacturing vaccines at scale only occurs after its developer receives approval from the FDA. In the middle of a global pandemic, this was unacceptable. So, beginning in the summer of 2020, we financed the manufacturing of up to 3 billion vaccines, many months before any vaccine was granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). When the Biden administration “secures” more doses, it is simply pushing the “reorder button” on options in contracts we established last year. The OWS strategy also involved selecting a small “portfolio” of the very best vaccines from among 114 vaccine candidates. Could the candidate get through phase-three clinical trials quickly enough? Would it be effective in persons over age 65? Could it be manufactured at scale such that we would have tens of millions of doses prior to the first half of 2021? Dr. Slaoui chose six candidates across three technology platforms, five of which have, or will shortly, meet all of these criteria.
Despite the Biden administration’s comments suggesting we “had no plan,” we are flattered the Biden administration has actually embraced nearly 100 percent of the Trump administration’s plan. The only difference is FEMA-led mass-vaccination sites, which have administered less than 2 percent of our vaccines. The Biden folks snub their noses at the Trump dog food at night, but the bowl is always empty in the morning.
