We Need More Operation Warp Speeds
By Hunter Baker, Associate Professor of Political Science and University Fellow
Feb 10, 2022 -
In late October of 1964, a devastating earthquake hit America’s northernmost state. Perhaps because of Alaska’s separation from the lower 48 states and its relatively low population, few people are aware of the natural disaster which is one of the most significant to ever hit the North American continent. The entire economy of Alaska was as stake.
In the book, If We Can Put a Man on the Moon . . . , William Eggers and John O’Leary tell the story of how President Lyndon Johnson turned to the long-serving federal bureaucrat Dwight Ink. Ink was a holdover from the Eisenhower administration who had been retained because of his record of competence and effectiveness. When he received the call from Johnson to head the recovery effort, Ink had been watching news reports and feeling sorry for whoever got the job. He didn’t feel he could say no to the president.
The history of the earthquake recovery has been written. It was a great success. Ink achieved exactly what President Johnson hoped he could by restoring the state’s economy. The critical insight we can take from the story is that Ink understood ordinary administrative processes (and politics as usual) stood in the way of meeting impossible milestones. They would have to be suspended. Freed from red tape and supported by the President and Congress, Ink was able to rebuild fast enough to keep Alaskans from having to abandon their state.
When the COVID-19 pandemic descended upon the U.S. in 2020, many immediately put their hopes on vaccines to protect their lives and to facilitate a return to normality. But the widespread belief was that vaccines would be years off in the future. Dr. Anthony Fauci speculated that it could take four years or more to get a vaccine. The Trump administration, however, did not wait. A recent article by the Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley describes the innovative approach the administration took. Recognizing that drug companies would be reluctant to develop vaccines not knowing if FDA approval could be achieved or if a successful vaccine could even be developed, the government ordered large quantities of vaccines and other therapies to incentivize drug companies to deliver. As a result, Americans gained access to three vaccines and other therapies in record time. Monoclonal antibody treatments also emerged from the Warp Speed process.
While there are various controversies swirling around the vaccines, efforts to mandate their use for work and travel, and other associated issues, the simple fact is that it is clear we are better off with access to them and other therapies than we would be without them. While rapidly developed vaccines have been unable to completely block the spread of COVID, they appear to do an excellent job of reducing the need for hospitalization and ventilators for those who get the virus. They do seem to protect the heart and lungs as they were designed to do. And even among vaccine skeptics, there is a tremendous desire to have access to the monoclonal antibody treatments that also came from the Warp Speed process.
Perhaps not wanting to validate President Trump’s team’s approach, the Biden administration discontinued Warp Speed and seemed to declare a premature victory. As a consequence, the Wall Street Journal reports, the government “failed to prepare for another wave by stockpiling treatments and investing in new ones.” The Warp Speed approach of diversifying the arsenal continues to be an ideal approach with a virus that continues to change.
The important lesson here is that when crisis strikes, considerations of political capital need to be set aside. Part of the reason Dwight Ink was able to succeed in Alaska is because no one felt threatened by him or feared his success. As a result, the political class was able to set aside its usual rent-seeking and credit-claiming behavior to get the job done. It appears Operation Warp Speed was too quickly dismantled because it was an unambiguous success for an administration much of Washington loathed and continues to view as a threat. But when it comes to a disaster of the scale of COVID, the political calculations should give way to a focus on the essence of the thing. How do we save lives? How do we recover and preserve a sense of normality (especially for children)? COVID calls for constructive politics and administration. It shouldn’t be another venue for partisan considerations.
This column originally appeared on February 9th in World Opinion
