Operation Warp Speed: A National Security Tool to Protect Us From National Security Implications of Disease

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The government was opposed to working with for profit companies. They fired Merck because they were going to earn a profit. AstraZeneca promised to earn no profit, but it delayed the rollout of that vaccine by about three months. That had a tremendous cost. And then an example in the paper that we're talking about today where I believe I pointed out in this paper that you take the Oxford vaccine. It is an amazing story.

When there's no vaccine on the market, people will look for other ways to be safe, including school closures and the handwashing of groceries. Listen as economist Casey Mulligan of the University Chicago talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the costs of delaying a vaccine, the hidden costs of FDA regulation, and what we learned and failed to learn about the Covid pandemic.