We need more Operation Warp Speed

In late March of 1964, a devastating earthquake hit America’s northernmost state. Perhaps because of Alaska’s separation from the lower 48 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 at stake.

In If We Can Put a Man on the Moon …, William Eggers and John O’Leary tell how President Lyndon Johnson turned to long-serving federal bureaucrat Dwight Ink for help. Ink was a holdover from the Eisenhower administration who had been retained because of his record of competence and effectiveness. When he received Johnson’s call to head the recovery effort, Ink had been watching news reports and feeling sorry for whoever got the job. But he knew he could not say no to the president.

The history of that earthquake recovery effort 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 that 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 United States in 2020, many immediately put their hopes in 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 approval from the Food and Drug Administration 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.

Perhaps not wanting to validate or even acknowledge President Donald Trump’s team approach, the Biden administration discontinued Warp Speed and seemed to declare a premature victory over COVID. As a consequence, the Journal reports, the government “failed to prepare for another wave by stockpiling treatments and investing in new ones.” We now know that the Warp Speed approach of diversifying the arsenal really made a difference.

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 that no one felt threatened by him or feared his success. As a result, the political class was able to put aside its usual rent-seeking instincts 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 that much of Washington loathed and continues to view as a threat. But when it comes to a disaster on 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.

Government is one of God’s gifts to humanity, but human sin means that it can often become a curse. We need to learn the lessons from the past—and the present—to work toward a government that truly fulfills its mission. COVID will not be the last challenge we face.