DoD Mini Series: Matt Hepburn “Let’s Take Pandemics Off the Table”

Dr. Matt Hepburn of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy joins Steve and CSIS Senior Associate Tom Cullison for this 130th episode. Beginning as an Army infectious disease researcher and DARPA project manager, Dr. Hepburn’s visionary leadership was instrumental in the rapid availability of Covid vaccines through Operation Warp Speed. The world continues to face catastrophic consequences with the highly contagious BA2 variant. Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, and others are in the midst of spikes, while China wrestles with the strong likelihood of widespread outbreaks. Africa is largely unvaccinated, adding Covid to the list of diseases that burden the continent. Although he suggests summer will not save the United States from another surge, Dr. Hepburn remains positive. He’s posed seemingly impossible challenges like “let’s create a vaccine against an unknown disease in 60 days”, then won over skeptics by creating a solution. “We have to change the culture of our government to escape the cycle of crisis and complacency”