Operation Warp Speed as a “Moonshot”: Some Public Policy Lessons
This article presents Operation Warp Speed (OWS), a federal government project launched by the Trump administration in May 2020 to develop a vaccine against COVID-19. In contrast with the often incoherent and sometimes reckless behaviour of President Trump during the pandemic, OWS was a focussed and...
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| In: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Language: | Anglais |
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Angles
2021
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| Online Access: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_4179 |
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openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_4179 https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.4179 urn:doi:10.4000/angles.4179 en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/4179 2021-11-03T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/9n1k https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Operation Warp Speed as a “Moonshot”: Some Public Policy Lessons Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Sowels, Nicholas Trump Donald COVID-19 coronavirus Operation Warp Speed vaccins moonshots pluralisme discipliné théorie de la complexité politique publique Mazzucato Mariana Kay John Trump Donald COVID-19 coronavirus Operation Warp Speed vaccines moonshots disciplined pluralism complexity theory public policy Mazzucato Mariana Kay John This article presents Operation Warp Speed (OWS), a federal government project launched by the Trump administration in May 2020 to develop a vaccine against COVID-19. In contrast with the often incoherent and sometimes reckless behaviour of President Trump during the pandemic, OWS was a focussed and largely successful initiative to support vaccine research, manufacture, and delivery. It contributed to the discovery and early deployment of several vaccines within a year and paved the way for a comparatively effective vaccination campaign in the United States in 2021, which later met popular resistance along partisan lines. The article examines OWS as a public-private partnership to achieve a “moonshot”, drawing on Mariana Mazzucato’s work on Mission Economics which calls for more pro-active government action to tackle major economic, environmental, and social challenges. The article then qualifies the success of OWS as a moonshot, pointing to the competitive market elements built into the project which also helped ensure its success. Finally, this research strives to examine OWS and the US vaccination rollout using complexity analysis, to give some perspective to the emergence of vaccine resistance behaviour as of spring 2021. Cet article présente l'Opération Warp Speed (OWS), un programme fédéral lancé par l'administration Trump en mai 2020 pour développer un vaccin contre le COVID-19. Contrairement à la réponse souvent incohérente et parfois irresponsable du Président Trump pendant la pandémie, l’OWS fut un programme très ciblé et réussi pour soutenir la recherche, la fabrication et la livraison de vaccins, qui a contribué à la découverte et au déploiement rapides de plusieurs vaccins en moins d’un an. De même, l’OWS a ouvert la voie à une campagne de vaccination relativement réussie aux États-Unis en 2021, qui par la suite s’est heurtée à une obstruction partisane au sein de la population. L'article examine ensuite l’OWS en tant que partenariat public-privé avec un « objectif lune » en s’inspirant des travaux de Mariana Mazzucato sur L’économie de mission qui prône des politiques publiques plus volontaristes pour aborder des problèmes économiques, environnementaux et sociaux majeurs. Cette contribution avance aussi quelques mises en garde contre une approche aussi ambitieuse, soulignant que le fonctionnement de l’OWS s’appuya aussi sur les lois du marché pour le développement de vaccins. Enfin, l’article cherche à examiner l’OWS et le programme de vaccination aux États-Unis à la lumière de la théorie de la complexité qui fournit des pistes pour comprendre l’émergence de la résistance partisane au programme de vaccination qui s’est développé à partir du printemps 2021. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
Trump Donald COVID-19 coronavirus Operation Warp Speed vaccins moonshots pluralisme discipliné théorie de la complexité politique publique Mazzucato Mariana Kay John Trump Donald COVID-19 coronavirus Operation Warp Speed vaccines moonshots disciplined pluralism complexity theory public policy Mazzucato Mariana Kay John |
| spellingShingle |
Trump Donald COVID-19 coronavirus Operation Warp Speed vaccins moonshots pluralisme discipliné théorie de la complexité politique publique Mazzucato Mariana Kay John Trump Donald COVID-19 coronavirus Operation Warp Speed vaccines moonshots disciplined pluralism complexity theory public policy Mazzucato Mariana Kay John Sowels, Nicholas Operation Warp Speed as a “Moonshot”: Some Public Policy Lessons |
| description |
This article presents Operation Warp Speed (OWS), a federal government project launched by the Trump administration in May 2020 to develop a vaccine against COVID-19. In contrast with the often incoherent and sometimes reckless behaviour of President Trump during the pandemic, OWS was a focussed and largely successful initiative to support vaccine research, manufacture, and delivery. It contributed to the discovery and early deployment of several vaccines within a year and paved the way for a comparatively effective vaccination campaign in the United States in 2021, which later met popular resistance along partisan lines. The article examines OWS as a public-private partnership to achieve a “moonshot”, drawing on Mariana Mazzucato’s work on Mission Economics which calls for more pro-active government action to tackle major economic, environmental, and social challenges. The article then qualifies the success of OWS as a moonshot, pointing to the competitive market elements built into the project which also helped ensure its success. Finally, this research strives to examine OWS and the US vaccination rollout using complexity analysis, to give some perspective to the emergence of vaccine resistance behaviour as of spring 2021. |
| author |
Sowels, Nicholas |
| author_facet |
Sowels, Nicholas |
| author_sort |
Sowels, Nicholas |
| title |
Operation Warp Speed as a “Moonshot”: Some Public Policy Lessons |
| title_short |
Operation Warp Speed as a “Moonshot”: Some Public Policy Lessons |
| title_full |
Operation Warp Speed as a “Moonshot”: Some Public Policy Lessons |
| title_fullStr |
Operation Warp Speed as a “Moonshot”: Some Public Policy Lessons |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Operation Warp Speed as a “Moonshot”: Some Public Policy Lessons |
| title_sort |
operation warp speed as a “moonshot”: some public policy lessons |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.4179 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/4179 |
| _version_ |
1877293422029570048 |