Alec Stapp: Give Trump Credit for Operation Warp Speed

What should governments, private companies, and individuals do differently next time disaster strikes?

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Alec Stapp: Give Trump Credit for Operation Warp Speed

This is the audio version of The Reason Livestream, which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the government's response to it cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars and resulted in a major hit to global freedom. What should governments, private companies, and individuals do differently next time disaster strikes?

Alec Stapp, co-founder of the Institute for Progress, has assembled a team devoted to analyzing and applying the lessons of the pandemic. The institute has published papers arguing that Operation Warp Speed was a success that should be duplicated, for greater investment in indoor filtration, and for better biosurveillance. Stapp joined Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe for a live conversation about how to prevent the next global catastrophe.

Comments

[Mother's Lament]

Trump gets a lot of blame based on phony allegations and Dem conspiracies, but his performance with Covid was abysmal. Yes, most pols were far worse but that still doesn't excuse him.

[Brandybuck]

Warpspeed was the right move. Waiting years for full approval would have meant deaths. A lot of problem with the government response to Covid, but accelerating the approval process for a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic was not one of them.

I still think he's a stopped clock, but he was at least right twice a day on this issue.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Rushing the “vaccine” killed people.

[Bubba Jones]

When did reason become a honey trap for morans?

Seriously. I thought the whole “glibertarians” exodus a few years ago was overblown but in the last 6 years, reason has become a haven for spam and Facebook trolls.

Wtf.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Breaker morans was a great movie.

[Linn Armato]

Lmfao, what are the odds, Bubba the triple-boosted hicklib fucking retard can't spell "morons"

[Moo Cow]

Obviously not aware of all Internet traditions.

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[MoreFreedom]

Sure rushing the vaccine killed people, but how does that compare to how many it saved? We don't know because the government isn't providing good statistics because Big Pharma doesn't want any bad stats reported for their products, and they pay a lot to government officials and doctors to do as they say.

At my advanced age and with my comorbidities, getting the vaccine made sense. I, of course, eventually contracted Covid and am glad I got the vaccine because I still got very sick and believe it would have been much worse, likely death, without it.

Your point about the vaccine causing deaths is a one sided view, and is equivalent to saying the introduction of automobiles caused deaths.

[KHP54]

Believe what you like, but what evidence do you have? You can't actually run a test with only one participant.

[Linn Armato]

Gee why am I not surprised that the Marxist bootlicking faggot sack of shit chicken little COVID histrionic who's spent 7 years humping the leg of every deranged Trump conspiracy theory finally finds something to praise about and it happens to be the biggest fuckup of his entire presidency. Congratulations on your unblemished record of being completely and totally fucking wrong about quite literally every possible subject you cunt.

[sarcasmic]

Hi Tulpa.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Hi fucknuts.

[Mother's Lament]

Hi fucknuts.

[Linn Armato]

Hi SQRSLY! Did you and shreek get to bond over those nude pics you squirreled away of your daughter before you lost custody?

[Mother's Lament]

The shit Sarcasmic will do to gain a friend is nauseating.

[Mike Laursen]

Hey, Tulpa! How was your week?

[Linn Armato]

Hi Episiarch/Bo Cara Esq.! My week was a lot better than yours, I suspect. I didn't have to suck sarcasmic's flaccid whiskey dick while listening to him drunk-rage about mens rea while white knighting for a known pedophile who got banned for posting dark web links to hardcore child pornography.

[JesseAz]

Can you cite evidence for your claims? Because non covid unexpected death count remains high after spiking post vaccines.

[Mother's Lament]

"Waiting years for full approval would have meant deaths."

It would've meant fuck all, because none of the mRNA "vaccines" worked. They didn't stop stop you from catching the virus and they didn't stop you from transmitting the virus.
They did nothing.
Zero lives were "saved" by them. The data is crystal clear on this.

"Oh, but the effects weren't as bad if you caught it after the jab"
The effects weren't as bad if you took a Tylenol either and that doesn't cost hundreds of billions.

[JesseAz]

The fact that covid death rates mirrored population death rates by age group almost exactly is a tell.

[Vesicant]

I am so tired of this strawman canard. No vaccine ever made prevents you from catching the virus or transmitting it to someone else (during the period before your body kills off the virus). The *only* thing a vaccine does is prepare your body to fight off a virus by training your immune system to recognize the virus and have the antibodies ready to go. A vaccine in and of itself is not an antibiotic. A vaccine is not a Level 4 biocontainment facility. Maybe the vaccines worked, maybe they didn’t. The problem with Operation Warp Speed is that it didn’t warp that criminal Fauci into the middle of the Sun. Trump should have had Fauci dragged off to prison, but he didn’t. Trump has to answer for the economic, social, and cultural impacts of letting Fauci and friends run wild.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

That is literally not back up by any study

[NOYB2]

You obviously don't understand what Operation Warpspeed was. Emergency approval doesn't require an "operation" or presidential intervention, that's something the FDA can do quickly and easily themselves.

Operation Warpspeed was $10 billion subsidies to big pharma, exemption from liability, and on top of that many billions more in government purchases and vaccine mandates: big, corrupt government at its finest.

[DesigNate]

Not to mention giving them special legal liability protection.

[KHP54]

Not just no, but hell no! This is one of them most evil things I've read all day long.

It's one thing to fast track the *development* process -- No real harm in taking less time to come up with a vaccine candidate to enter into the approval process.

But fast tracking the approval process itself mostly means shortchanging the testing part of the process. Evil, as I said.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Absolutely agree. Trump got totally rolled on the Covid scam. Still the best president in my lifetime but to praise him for a useless "vaccine" to cure an inconsequential flu is pretty silly. Actually Warp Speed was Trump at his worst. Except for mean Tweets of course.

[Don't look at me!]

What should governments, private companies, and individuals do differently next time disaster strikes?

Just about the opposite of whatever they did last time.

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[MoreFreedom]

I didn't hear anything on the podcast regarding lock downs and how libertarians would recommend handling that; showing the short sighted, lack of thinking on it from the participants. To be fair, after the podcast changed from Covid I didn't listen to the rest and might have missed it.

You're right regarding lock downs: "... do the opposite of whatever they did last time." Allow me to expound on the libertarian option on lock downs. That would be no government lock downs (except in government buildings, and while locked down they don't get paid like the rest of us).

As for private businesses, they should be free to implement their own safety protocols for both their employees and customers. If someone enters a business and doesn't mask per the business rules, the proper government role would be to remove them and charge them with trespassing or disturbing the peace. I doubt you'd find many businesses requiring that you remove a mask even though many believe people who mask are idiots.

This libertarian approach allows the market to respond to what people want, without the government getting involved with force. If it turns out to be too safe or too dangerous, the market will respond.

[Linn Armato]

Libertarians for special exemptions from generally applicable laws and a total shield from all liability for Big Pharma!

Rolling back the FDA would have been good. Giving sweetheart deals to drug makers and foisting their experimental garbage vaccines that do absolutely nothing to prevent or treat any illness onto the public through compulsory vaccination is Nazi shit. Predictably, whenever there’s an option to take the Nazi shit side of an argument, there’s some Koch-sucking lap dog libertarian yipping at Chuckie’s heels to do it.

[Roberta]

I was for it because regardless of the outcome, I figured it would be precedent for loosening the rules in the future. It’s like if they freed some slaves, I expect that’d be precedent for freeing some more.

And I'm all for special exemptions from bad laws. If even one person is exempted from one, that's better than nobody.

[Don't look at me!]

You figured wrong

[Roberta]

No, I think over the next decade that precedent's going to be invoked.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

No the precedent that will be invoked is forced "vaccines" and lockdowns. Did you happen to notice that not one individual from the CDC, NIH, Federal government, state government or local government has payed any price for the lives they destroyed and untold damage to generations to follow, has payed a price for their crimes? But Warp Speed is your libertarian moment?

[NOYB2]

Utter and complete stupidity like yours is why libertarians keep failing.

[MoreFreedom]

I agree with Roberta. And to support my position, consider the Right to Try law implemented by Trump. That is increasing our freedom and are exceptions to existing government prohibitions.

Secondly, the long history of mankind, has shown the direction is toward more freedom and the civility and prosperity that come with it. The Magna Carta and the founding of the USA gave us two huge increases in our freedom.

To be fair the other side, yeah freedom requires eternal vigilance because people in government aren't perfect and the corrupt ones will always look for ways to increase their power, control and wealth by reducing our freedoms. E.G., Fauci funding the creation of Covid, governors/mayors locking us down after Fauci pushed for a two-week lock down, and the Chinese government for their inability to keep Covid in the lab. Their government works far worse than ours, it's gotten powerful and is working to reduce our freedoms. We will have setbacks.

That freedom has been increasing, indicates Libertarians are succeeding in making society more civil and more prosperous thanks to less government force (or more freedom, but I’m being redundant about a distinction many don’t see).

[Linn Armato]

I wish you were right, but I know you're wrong.

[NOYB2]

It’s like if they freed some slaves, I expect that’d be precedent for freeing some more.

In reality, many of the freed slaves actually became slave owners themselves.

[NOYB2]

I was for it because regardless of the outcome, I figured it would be precedent for loosening the rules in the future.

And by "loosening the rules", you mean $10 billion in R&D subsidies, billions more in government purchases, government vaccine mandates, and exemption from liability for manufacturers?

That's the kind of "loosening of rules" you favor?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

And I’m all for special exemptions from bad laws. If even one person is exempted from one, that’s better than nobody.

I disagree, because it elevates the 'special person' to be above the law while the rest of us are still subject, it further erodes trust in institutions and promotes Nations of Men vs Nations of Laws.

That's like saying, "Well, we can't have the perfect OR the good, so we'll settle for the terrible."

[KHP54]

Good grief!

The rules that were loosened weren't relaxing government restrictions, they were restricting the ability to sue for harms. In other words - - tightened government restrictions

[VULGAR MADMAN]

It’s cute they want to give Trump credit for that disaster now.

[Longtobefree]

Approve a constitutional amendment that no "emergency" executive order can be in effect longer than 10 calendar days, and cannot be extended, reissued, or in any way apply after those 10 days.
That leaves plenty of time for the legislature to do their damn job.
Ideally, another amendment prohibiting any executive branch agency from issuing any kind of regulation at all. They should make recommendations to congress, period.

[JFree]

My preference would be that all declarations of emergency require militia mobilization. By definition, an emergency is not within the authority granted to either the legislature or the executive as a result of a previous normal election.

[Public Entelectual]

Trump's Strategic Disinfectant Initiative was Operation Warp Speed's finest hour:

“Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and... supposing you brought the light inside the body, either through the skin or some other way. And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute -- is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?"

https://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2020/04/white-house-launches-strategic-virus.html

Climate and covid cranks tend to share playbooks-this was around the time Watts Up With That was touting tonic water and lethal doses of chloroquine as vaccine alternatives.

https://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2020/04/of-quinine-and-chloroquine-willis.html

[Mother's Lament]

Stop pushing your scam site, Shrike, and ultraviolet light did kill the virus and they did shine it in respiratory passages and the nasal cavity to reduce viral load.
Time to update your outdated smears.

[Linn Armato]

I don't think this one is shreek, it started out as Entelechy and has been shilling that shitty web 1.0 climate hysteria blog for gotta be close to 10 years now. Although now that you mention it, the style of blog and syntax is somewhat reminiscent of shreek's old "AddictionMyth" blog that he used to relentlessly shill as well. That having been said, shreek outs all of his socks eventually because if you needle him even just a tiny little bit about one of his personal bugaboos he can't help himself from reverting to his normal syntax and talking points. I can't recall this account sucking off George Soros or referencing "christofascism" like he has on literally every other one of his socks.

[Linn Armato]

Nobody ever clicks on your fraudulent links to your free web 1.0 chicken little climate hysteria blogspot you decrepit worthless old piece of shit. Go fucking kill yourself like I told you to.

[MWAocdoc]

The only significant point in the Institute for Progress "Operation Warp Speed Model" report was "effectively cut through red tape." Now if only we could get it through the seven levels of bureaucratic thick-headedness that we should let ALL operations effectively cut through red tape, the world would be a much better place! And if we can't get it through their dense skulls, we should simply eliminate all of the red tape and let people take responsibility for their own decisions.

[Jerryskids]

For the next pandemic, we'll be killing anybody who gets sick and burning their bodies and offering virgin sacrifices to volcanoes.

[NOYB2]

Give Trump credit for what? A big government program that handed billions to pharma companies and exempted them from liability for delivering largely ineffective vaccines with unacceptably high rates of harmful side effects against a disease that was little worse than a bad flu season?

This is what "libertarianism" has come to?

[DesigNate]

No, this is just what Reason has become.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland]

Hey reason, you even pretend to be libritarian anymore?

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[A Thinking Mind]

If Operation WarpSpeed was just about loosing or removing FDA regulations, it would have been utterly fantastic. That's how it was pitched and described.

Instead, it actually gave legal protections to the pharmaceutical company and pumped billions into them, so they were free to market their vaccine, lie about its effectiveness, and completely avoid lawsuits because of a liability shield.

Get government out of the way and make drug companies make their own judgments about risk and reward, in which punitive lawsuits can be a check on the desire to rush a drug to market. There's nothing wrong with also hoping for a bit more scientific literacy in the court system as well, so you don't get bullshit judgments like the Monsanto case (in which Round-Up almost certainly has not and did not cause cancer in any individual, but since there was a tiny possibility, they got sued for billions), but that doesn't have to extend to protecting big companies from ever facing judgments.

[CE]

Kind of a quandary for Trump. Getting the vaccines out quickly was a major accomplishment for him, but his base didn't trust them and didn't want to take them. Far Left politicians like Gavin Newsom originally said they wouldn't take the Trump vaccine, then turned on a dime and said everyone should get the shot, and the second shot, and the monthly boosters for the previous mutation of the virus, even schoolchildren who were at near zero risk for COVID-19 and a non-zero risk for an experimental vaccine.

[JFree]

More a quandary for his antivax base. They are the ones who died in significantly greater numbers once the vaccine came out. So maybe not really a quandary since they're, like, dead.

But it is funny.

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[JFree]

The antivax clowns are certainly swarming around here now aren't they. All with the same playbook and the same talking points.

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[Archangel America]

Why is Reason giving credit to anyone for a bogus government program that released a bioweapon on the American People?
Anyone who peeks behind the thin veneer of safety and efficacy held up by the institutional media knows the truth. I refuse to believe that Reason didn't bother and just accepted whatever "Official Sources" told them.

Then just to add insult to injury, Reason quotes Alec Stapp, co-founder of the Institute for Progress, a central planners wet dream of how we can steer science through government policy.

Pull your head out Reason!

[hatchhozzen]

Warpspeed was the right move. Waiting years for full approval would have meant deaths. A lot of problem with the government response to Covid, but accelerating the approval process for a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic was not one of them.

[hatchhozzen]

Warpspeed was the right move. Waiting years for full approval would have meant deaths. A lot https://www.dillonhailrepair.com/ of problem with the government response to Covid, but accelerating the approval process for a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic was not one of them.

[hatchhozzen]

Why is Reason giving credit to anyone for a bogus government program that released a bioweapon on the American People?
Anyone who peeks behind the thin veneer of safety and efficacy held up by the institutional media knows the truth. I refuse to believe that Reaso https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.scorechamp.scorechamp_app bother and just accepted whatever “Official Sources” told them.

Then just to add insult to injury, Reason quotes Alec Stapp, co-founder of the Institute for Progress, a central planners wet dream of how we can steer science through government policy.

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