Correction and praise of Operation Warp Speed
I wanted to correct an error I made in my December 1 letter that I didn’t notice until after it had already been printed. I stated that President-elect Biden won the popular vote by a margin of 8 million votes which is incorrect. The actual margin was slightly under 7 million votes. This margin seems unlikely to change significantly since most, perhaps all, states have either already certified their results or are no longer involved in recounts.
Secondly, though I never hesitate to criticize President Trump and his administration, I did want to applaud the decision to go forward with Operation Warp Speed. The decision to pursue the manufacture of many different vaccine candidates in advance of determining how effective (or not) each candidate would turn out to be was the right one and has thus far succeeded spectacularly. As we have seen recently, several candidates have turned out to be extremely effective; their manufacture will help not only our country but others to approach and reach herd immunity much sooner than we would have otherwise.
It was also wise of prior administrations to support the continued funding of basic coronavirus research by the US National Institute of Health (NIH) — a great example of the wisdom of continually funding basic research.
Paul Mack
Columbus
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