meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Business Wars

Vaccine Wars | Warp Speed | 4

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.613.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s summer 2020 and with Covid infections surging across America, the Trump administration’s ready to spend billions to get a vaccine fast.

For vaccine makers — who face the enormous costs of rapidly upscaling manufacturing and pushing their shots through large-scale human trials — the government funding is a lifeline.

But as the push to create vaccines hits warp speed, there’s a growing need to reassure the public that science, not politics, is in the driver’s seat.

Listen to new episodes 1 week early and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/businesswars.

Support us by supporting our sponsors!

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon music. Download the app today

0:17.5

May 11th 2020

0:20.6

COVID-19 is devastating the United States

0:23.8

4 million infections 75,000 deaths

0:27.0

20 million people out of work

0:30.8

Outside hospitals bodies pile up in refrigerated trailers as morgues overflow

0:36.5

And on the streets protesters rail against lockdown measures

0:42.0

But at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington DC a counter strike is in the works

0:49.8

In a conference room, Monsaf Slowy watches as the room fills up with federal officials,

0:55.2

political advisors, and army generals

0:58.4

Slowy's a retired drug industry executive whose career was born from tragedy

1:03.7

While growing up in Morocco his six-month-old sister died from whooping cough

1:08.8

With better access to a vaccine she could have been saved

1:13.6

Slowy went on to turn the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmith Cline into the world's top vaccine maker

1:20.4

Now he's about to get a new mission

1:22.7

A White House official starts the meeting

1:26.4

Mr. Slowy how much have you been told

1:29.5

Just that you want me to run something like the Manhattan Project for the COVID-19 vaccine

1:35.2

Yes, we want to deploy the federal government's full resources to make a vaccine happen by the end of the year

1:41.8

You'll be the chief advisor and lead on the science and general perna here will handle logistics

1:48.4

We're calling it Operation Warp Speed

1:50.7

Warp Speed?

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

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

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

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.