(1/8) Let's review how Operation Warp Speed is going, a thread:

The federal government chose six companies to dole out $$ to in a race for a vaccine. One of those companies, Pfizer, said "We don't want your $$, because we don't want to deal with excessive oversight, but we will

(2/8) guarantee you a price & even bigger volume of vaccines if you pre-reserve, and you don't have to pay upfront unless the vaccine is shown to be effective/is approved." The federal government, in its infinite wisdom, did not take Pfizer up on this deal even though there was

(3/8) literally no downside, because that would not be in keeping w/the plan to buy only 100m doses of vaccine from the six individual companies. When early promising results came out, Pfizer asked, again, if the US wanted to order more doses, and the US said no. So Pfizer, an

(4/8) American company, set out to sign contracts with other countries--including the EU--and committed the rest of its early 2021 vaccine store. Meanwhile, one other company in the original six, Moderna, has managed to develop a vaccine comparable to Pfizer's, another company,

(5/8) AstraZeneca, has developed a vaccine that's "meh" at best, with a far lower immunity rate and some problematic trial goings-on, and the final two companies are far from being anywhere close to having a vaccine that's ready for primetime. But now, because of this dumb

(6/8) commitment to "the plan" cooked up by the Operation Warp Speed folks, the US can no longer get more Pfizer vaccine inventory until the middle of next year, and unless Moderna can seriously ramp up production, we will experience a Q2 vaccine "cliff" where vaccinations

(7/8) come to a halt because we've run out of supply--while other countries, like our European counter-parts, plod along with vaccinating their citizens because they were not bone-headed about this and recognized that Pfizer was offering a great deal worth taking.

(8/8) To conclude:

1. Operation Warp Speed declined a no-risk deal w/Pfizer in order to stick to the "plan" of subsidizing far less promising trials.
2. This clusterf**k may cost lives and slow economic recovery.
3. Someone please find out ASAP if Moderna can make more vaccines.