Paul Kengor: Give Trump due credit for Operation Warp Speed - TribLIVE

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We’re full-throttle into mass distribution of covid-19 vaccines. And let there be no doubt, their rapid development is an extraordinary achievement. I want to underscore that by revisiting what I wrote here last spring, when I placed President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed into historical context — looking particularly at the polio vaccine pioneered by Dr. Jonas Salk at Pitt.

Salk’s vaccine was announced in April 1955, but the push by the federal government began way back in January 1938 when Basil O’Connor became President Franklin Roosevelt’s point man to wage war on the disease, including through the creation of the March of Dimes. (For the record, in 1935, two polio vaccines were announced by research teams led by Maurice Brodie and John Kolmer, but both were quickly shelved because vaccinated children died in clinical trials.) In 1949, O’Connor upped the ante with a mass infusion of research dollars into a vaccine.

Though the medical community was skeptical, Salk was not. Salk had harsh critics, particularly fellow researcher Albert Sabin. Sabin’s own (oral) vaccine wasn’t released until 1961.

In sum, it took many years to develop the polio vaccine, during which time things got worse, with 1952 being the worst polio outbreak yet. By contrast, the development of the covid-19 vaccines took under a year. The swiftness of their development is unprecedented.

To be sure, there are many reasons why covid-19 vaccines were developed so much quicker than polio vaccines. Consider merely the example being researched at Pitt: Scientists there had already mapped out the genetic sequencing. “We had previous experience on SARS-CoV in 2003 and MERS-CoV in 2014,” Pitt’s Dr. Andrea Gambotto said. “We knew exactly where to fight this new virus.”

Even then, whatever head start the covid vaccines had over the polio vaccines, and whatever the superiority of modern technology, the breathtaking speed is a stunning biomedical accomplishment.

At the final presidential debate on Oct. 22, moderator Kristen Welker asked Trump if he could “guarantee” there would be a covid vaccine within coming weeks. “I can’t guarantee that, but it will be by end of the year,” Trump said with a striking prediction. He pointed to the three leading developers, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer, telling the national viewing audience that they “are doing very well.”

Joe Biden wasn’t just incredulous but snidely dismissive, insisting to Welker: “He (Trump) has no clear plan and there’s no prospect that there’s going to be a vaccine available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year.”

Less than eight weeks later, Biden was sticking out his arm in Wilmington, Del., for his first dose.

As he did, Biden gave Trump some credit. “I think the administration deserves some credit getting this off the ground with Operation Warp Speed,” Biden conceded as he and his wife got their Pfizer-BioNTech injection. Biden’s concession to Trump hasn’t gotten the media attention it should. And it would be a great gesture of unity if Biden more deliberately recognized Trump’s efforts.

I’ve never been a cheerleader for Donald Trump, but I have a strong sense of justice and injustice. And it’s terribly unjust not to give this man his share of due credit for this incredible accomplishment by and in partnership with the biomedical community.

Operation Warp Speed worked. Give the reviled Orange Man his due.

Paul Kengor is a professor of political science and chief academic fellow of the Institute for Faith & Freedom at Grove City College.

Categories: Opinion | Paul Kengor Columns