45BloombergBusinessweek November 2, 2020meansuntoldmillionsofdosescouldendup
inthegarbage.(Andindeed,AstraZenecaand
J&JhavehadtopausetheirU.S.trialsbecause
ofsafetyconcerns.Bothcompaniesresumed
onOct.23.)Eachvaccinehasitsownstorage
requirements.Pfizer’sneedstobekeptat-75C
(-103F),whichmakesdistributingit acrossthe
countrya dauntingtask.ThecreationofOperationWarpSpeedmighthavebeen
unnecessaryif notfora seriesofdecisionsthatnowlooktrag-
icallymyopic.Public-healthexpertshadbeensoundingthe
alarmaboutthelackofpandemicpreparednessforthepast
twodecades,buttheyweredrownedoutbyconcernsovera
bioterroristattack.ThosefearswereamplifiedinJune 2001
whena groupofU.S.officialsandpolicymakersconvenedfor
DarkWinter,anexercisewhichsimulateda biologicalweap-
onsattackinvolvingsmallpox.Inmanyways,theexercise
gamedoutmuchofwhathasunfoldedintheU.S.duringthe
Covidpandemic,includingthelackofsurgecapacitytotreat
victimsandthedifficultyofcontrollingtheoutbreak.
AfterDarkWintercameSept.11 anda seriesofhighlypub-
licizedanthraxattacksintheU.S.,usheringina newround
ofgovernmentspendingtowardoffa bioterroristattack.
Emergent,thencalledBioPortCorp.,wastheloneproducer
oftheonlyFDA-licensedanthraxvaccine.Thefederalgov-
ernmentsoonbeganstockpilingmillionsofdoses.
In2004,CongresspassedtheProjectBioShieldAct,which
provided$5.6billionoverthefollowingdecadetodevelop
andpurchase“medicalcountermeasures”—vaccinesand
therapiesagainstbiologicalandchemicalattacks—forthe
StrategicNationalStockpile,includingEmergent’santhrax
shot.Theactwasn’tdesignedtotacklenaturallyoccur-
ringinfectiousdiseases,despitecomingrightontheheels
ofsevereacuterespiratorysyndrome,orSARS,whichwas
causedbya coronavirus.SARShadbythattimeinfected
8,000peoplegloballyandkilled774,withoutbreaksstillpop-
pingupinAsiathatyear.
Drugcompaniesweren’teagertoinvestinthedevelop-
mentofdrugsandvaccinesneededfortheStrategicNational
Stockpile—they’reoftenriskyresearchbetswithanuncer-
tainpayoff—soin 2006 CongresscreatedtheBiomedical
AdvancedResearchandDevelopmentAuthority,knownas
Barda,tofillthatvoid.Througha seriesofBardacontracts
andacquisitions,Emergentconsolidateditsgriponthebio-
defenseindustry.In 2007 it secureda contracttodeliver
19 milliondosesofitsanthraxvaccineforthenationalstock-
pile.It thenacquiredandrenovateda facilityinBaltimore—
theonenowproducingCovid vaccines.
There’s a world in which those vaccines might have come
sooner. In 2012, Hotez, the Baylor scientist, got a large Niaid
grant to devise a vaccine against SARS. By 2017 the grant
ended, and even though the vaccine looked promising, he
couldn’t find money to begin testing it in humans. He says
it might have provided some protection against the newcoronavirus. “We had it in the freezer,” he says.
“These are not really moneymaking products.”
President Obama said in an October speech
that he left the Trump administration a
69-page document on how to deal with emerg-
ing pathogens, including coronaviruses. “We
literally left this White House a pandemic play-
book,” he said. But the Trump administration
has made a habit of pulling the plug on Obama-
era initiatives. In 2018, Trump’s national security adviser,
John Bolton, dissolved the Directorate for Global Health
Security and Biodefense, created by Obama after the Ebola
epidemic of 2014 to coordinate the White House response to
outbreaks of infectious diseases around the world. Bolton
said via Twitter that global health remained a top priority of
the National Security Council and that its experts effectively
handled the 2018-19 Ebola outbreak.
Responsibility for pandemic planning has long been scat-
tered across the federal government. There’s nothing as vis-
ible as a Federal Emergency Management Agency. Perhaps
the closest thing is the Office of the Assistant Secretary for
Preparedness and Response, headed by Robert Kadlec, a doc-
tor and retired Air Force colonel. A year after being appointed
to the position by Trump, Kadlec took control of the $650 mil-
lion budget for the Strategic National Stockpile, which had
been managed by the CDC. Kadlec was at one time a paid
consultant for Emergent and had been in business with the
company’s founder, the Washington Post reported in May.
Asked whether Emergent’s relationship with Kadlec put it
in a favorable position, the company said it’s worked with
multiple administrations, both Democratic and Republican.
Under the Trump administration, Emergent’s revenue has
more than doubled, to $1.1 billion in 2019 from $488 million in- When the pandemic hit, the Strategic National Stockpile
had millions of doses of anthrax vaccine and enough small-
poxvaccinetoinoculateeveryU.S.citizen.
It’snotasthoughKadlecdidn’trecognizetheriskofa nat-
urallyoccurringpandemic. In 2019 his office oversaw a simu-
lation of an influenza pandemic emanating from China. The
exercise, called Crimson Contagion, laid bare how unpre-
pared the U.S. was for something like the novel coronavirus.
In testimony before Congress in December 2019, Kadlec said
the U.S. lacked sufficient manufacturing capacity for almost
all necessary pandemic supplies: vaccines, therapeutics, nee-
dles, syringes, and masks. If the simulation was designed to
spark significant changes to the government’s planning, they
didn’t come in time.
On Jan. 13, Sean Kirk, Emergent’s head of manufacturing
and technical operations, grew worried as he watched the
newsabouta respiratoryillnessspreadinginWuhan,China.
Hewalkeddownthehalltohiscolleaguesrunningthecom-
pany’sglobalsupply chain and told them to start locking up
critical raw materials. “I was fearful that this thing could blow
PERNA: KEVIN LAMARGUE/ALAMY. SLAOUI: DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES up,” he recalls. Later that month, Emergent submitted an
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