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“My biggest achievement at HHS and in my life was Operation Warp Speed,” Azar said. “It was really the blending of the Eli Lilly experiences as well as the Bush Administration Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan experiences together to figure out how, instead of taking 8 to 12 years to get a vaccine, you could do it in seven months.”

“Chinese scientists posted a genetic sequence on January 10th (2020). By January 13th, our scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases had already developed a seed strain vaccine from that. And then they partnered that with Moderna, with whom we had already been working with on mRNA technology for about a decade. So, we had an existing contractual relationship there. We partnered with them and eight weeks later were in human trials. It was the fastest time in human history that a (pharmaceutical) product has moved from discovery to actual phase one human trials. So, it was ‘here’s the money, here’s the seed strain.'”