Thread by @ddiamond

I wrote one last story for POLITICO, about the crash landing of Operation Warp Speed.

Officials last year hoped it would be the greatest success of the Trump administration. Team Biden has instead deemed it a failure and just announced they’ll rename it.

politico.com/news/2021/01/1…

In interviews last year, officials talked about their optimism that “MP2” (short for “Manhattan Project 2,” an early name for what became Warp Speed) would deliver an end to the pandemic.

And they insisted history would bear them out, even after Trump lost.

Operation Warp Speed clearly achieved some goals — they helped deliver two working vaccines in 2020, an achievement that would’ve been seen as implausible a year ago.

But as problems piled up in recent weeks, officials have started blaming a familiar punching bag: the CDC.

And with growing frustration about the slow pace of shots, I asked multiple HHS officials - including Secretary Alex Azar last week - do you have any regrets about Warp Speed? Are you disappointed by the results?

(This seems to be a common response to that quote.)

https://twitter.com/nick_field90/status/1350875490723180557