Trump’s Warp Speed surprise mixes the message on vaccines

Though by no means perfect, this effort is generally recognised as having played a crucial role in quickly bringing out the first vaccines, especially the mRNA-based ones.

Except in Maga world, that is, where it is linked to controversies about everything from vaccine ineffectiveness to the suppression of free speech online to assorted conspiracy theories. Hence the president’s uncharacteristic reticence about his leading role in it.

Out of the blue, that changed last week. During a televised cabinet meeting, Trump said: “We did a great job with it; never got the credit for the job we did. Operation Warp Speed, people say, is one of the greatest achievements ever in politics – or in the military, because it was almost a military procedure.” Let’s not dwell on the fact it was almost nothing like a military procedure, as its brilliance lay in structuring financial incentives and legal protections that drove amazing collaboration between public sector and university scientists and private firms in a competition to develop the best vaccine.

Instead, wonder why has Vladimir Putin’s recent praise for Operation Warp Speed changed Trump’s mind? Could this be a sign he is starting to regret his war on medical research, and the slashing of public funding of mRNA work? Is Trump tiring of his anti-vax health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr? It seems unlikely, but we can only hope.