November 23, 2020

Operation Warp Speed: A Timeline

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I’ve gotten a little tired of hearing about Operation Warp Speed and how it’s responsible for producing a COVID-19 vaccine so fast. Here’s a brief timeline just to refresh everyone’s memories:

January 10: China releases genome of virus.

January 11: Scientists around the world immediately begin work on a vaccine.

January 14: Moderna begins development of its mRNA-based vaccine.

January 23: The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations provides $12.5 million in seed money to three companies, including Moderna.

January 26: BioNTech begins work on its mRNA-based vaccine.

February 15: More than two dozen companies have announced that they are working on a COVID-19 vaccine.

March 26: Congress passes the CARES Act, which allots $9.5 billion for vaccine development. It is passed almost unanimously. President Trump signs it into law the next day.

April 16: HHS announces $483 million in funding for the Moderna vaccine.

April 29: Operation Warp Speed is revealed in the press.

OWS seems to have been handled well and I’m happy to give Donald Trump credit for it since it happened on his watch. But vaccine development started long before it was a twinkle in his eye; everyone understood from the start that speed was critical; and it was Congress that allocated the funds to make it possible. Only after all that did Trump wrap a bow around everything by giving it a name. It was hardly a stroke of genius that only he could ever have come up with.

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