9. Moncef Slaoui: "It’s Unfortunate That It Takes a Crisis for This to Happen"

People I (Mostly) Admire

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2020

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Born in Morocco and raised mostly by a single mother, Moncef Slaoui is now one of the world’s most influential scientists. As the head of Operation Warp Speed — the U.S. government’s Covid-19 vaccine program — Slaoui has overseen the development and distribution of a new vaccine at a pace once deemed impossible. Steve Levitt finds out how the latest generation of vaccines improve on their predecessors, why “educated intuition” is important in innovation, and what we can do to be better prepared for future pandemics.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Nobody could have been more skeptical about Operation Warps Speed than I was.
0:06.0	Operation Warps Speed, that's the name given to the U.S. government's
0:10.0	18 billion dollar program to try to fast track a COVID-19 vaccine.
0:14.4	Look, I'm just not a big believer in government, especially when it comes to
0:18.4	doing things quickly and innovatively, and particularly the Trump administration, which has been nothing but
0:24.2	anti-science from the very beginning. And yet here we are seven months later and we've
0:29.7	already got two remarkably effective vaccines that are not only developed, but they're ready
0:34.9	for mass distribution.
0:37.5	All I can say is that this is a massive victory, both for mankind and for science.
0:44.0	Welcome to people I mostly admire,
0:48.0	with Steve Levitt.
0:50.0	My guest today is Mansif Sloughy who spearheaded that operation.
0:55.0	I'm so curious to get an inside look at how they pulled it off.
0:59.0	I'm also really interested to learn more about him.
1:02.0	He has an amazing backstory. He was born
1:04.2	poor in Morocco, his father died at an early age, and his mother was left to raise five
1:09.0	children on her own. And somehow from those humble beginnings he's risen to be one of the most
1:14.3	influential scientists in the world. He spent three decades at pharmaceutical giant
1:18.8	GlaxoSmith Klein, first as a vaccine researcher and eventually as head of research and development.
1:24.0	He has developed vaccines for Ebola, cervical cancer, and malaria and he was also a board member of Moderna,
1:31.0	one of the first companies to develop a successful COVID-19 vaccination.
1:35.0	But I'm also nervous about the interview. I've never spoken with him before
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.