Operation Warp Speed Is a Model for What Government Can Do.

We should be getting advances in technology this fast every year.

In the last week we’ve seen a stream of good news about vaccine development for the Covid-19: not one, not two, but three highly effective vaccines with no serious side effects. There is still much work to be done to distribute the vaccines and many questions to be answered about the timeline, but it is worth taking a moment to marvel at this achievement.

• The development of these vaccine candidates took less than a year. The previous record was four years and the typical vaccine takes 10–15 years to develop.
• There are several coronaviruses and no vaccine has ever been developed for one before.
• Some of these vaccine candidates are using a technology (“platform” in vaccine speak) that had never been used before. The technology was considered theoretical before 2020, but now it’s working.

Take a moment to let all that sink in. It’s an incredible testament to science and to human effort and intelligence.