The Precarious Promise Of ‘Warp Speed' Science

Pressure on regulatory agencies to approve untested disease treatments or to short-circuit customary clinical trial process can be intense, especially when the need for treatment is desperate, as in the fight against COVID-19

- Michael Hiltzik

President Donald Trump’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic has been rooted from the start in grand goals and grander ambitions, all to be achieved with record speed.

His administration’s funding of COVID-19 vaccines is dubbed “Operation Warp Speed.” As recently as Sunday, he promoted research into convalescent plasma — blood fluid taken from patients who have recovered from the virus — as “years ahead of approvals.”

He added, “If we went by the speed levels of past administration, (sic) we’d be two years, three years behind where we are today, and that includes in vaccines that you’ll be hearing about very soon, very shortly.”

Remarks like that “sends chills down everybody’s spines,” says Gregg Gonsalves, an expert on epidemiology at Yale medical school and Yale law school.

That’s because Trump’s rolling out a vaccine without adequate testing as an October surprise to aid his re-election would “set off a lot of confusion about whether it works,” generating more vaccine scepticism among the public.

Trump’s “magic bullet” approach to medicine reflects a common strain in the public’s attitude toward the scientific method — the search for uncomplicated answers for what may be complex and intractable problems, and a demand for speed when safe and effective results take time.