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Operation Warp Speed invested billions of taxpayer dollars to develop safe and effective vaccines to protect people against the worst outcomes from COVID-19. Under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), the pharmaceutical industry has delivered — in record time — two vaccines with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Johnson & Johnson and Novavax have released promising efficacy data from their phase three clinical trials. Immunizing health care workers and those living in long-term care facilities was slower than expected, largely due to the logistics of getting people vaccinated. The vaccine supply chain is now beginning to show some structure, with the expectation that there will be ample supply and capacity to immunize everyone who wants to be immunized by the summer.  

In January 2017, a lengthy proposal showed up at the offices of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority in Washington. Running 112 pages, the document described a strategy for stopping future pandemics. It outlined a number of vaccine technologies to pursue, including messenger RNA and adenovirus vectors, and recommended that a team of 180 scientists, doctors, and other experts be created to carry out the plan. There were intricate technical details, an org chart, and an estimated cost: $595 million over 10 years.

Public health experts say the United States is lagging behind other countries in its COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Tinglong Dai- an associate professor at the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, and an expert in health care analytics- has closely followed the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the United States. He says other countries are doing a better job of making the shots accessible to the public. “Americans are working too hard to get a vaccine,” Dai says. “Look at people in the UK and Israel...you basically don’t have to do anything to get a vaccine.” UK residents receive a letter telling them when they’re eligible for a vaccine and where to go to get it. Then, they simply book an appointment online.

When you share a campus with the world’s foremost coronavirus experts, it says a lot that you’re confident about returning to the classroom. Even as many parts of the United States continue to struggle in the fight against coronavirus, the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland last month resumed some in-person MBA classes. Between 30% and 40% of the Carey MBA class opted to come back to campus in person. And it’s going well — thanks to the preparations of a team of top minds, says Brian Gunia, associate dean for academic programs.

A year into the coronavirus pandemic, Americans are painfully aware that overcoming the scourge is a marathon, not a sprint. Enter Dave McGillivray, who knows a thing or two about endurance events — and logistics. The race director of the Boston Marathon, which is on hold until fall, has been tapped by the state of Massachusetts to run mass vaccination operations at Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park. Idled at his day job by the pandemic, he's part of an emerging group of event organizers and other unconventional logistics experts who are using their skills to help the nation vaccinate as many people against COVID-19 as possible. "It's amazing how our event management skill set can be applied to running a massive vaccination site," said McGillivray, who has been directing the marathon — with its many moving parts — for more than three decades.