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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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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