Star Trek
I was a Star Trek guy, a Trekkie, from the very beginning. I watched the first airing of Star Trek as a ten year old in September 1966. The memory is distinct, not so much for the show, but because a car hit our dog Louie in front of the house just as the credits were rolling. Louie didn’t make it, but I still watched more Trek, all of the originals, most of the Next Generation, some of Deep Space Nine, a few Voyagers, and on and on.
What I missed the first time around I caught on re-runs, from Captain Kirk’s first interracial kiss with Lieutenant Uhura (a bad Olympian God made him do it) to giving up the woman he loved for the universe in The City on the Edge of Forever. I am a Trekkie – I’ve watched the movies, and I watched the new series, Star Trek Discovery, yesterday afternoon.
The Original
But it was the original Trek that gave us most of the famous lines. “More Power Mr. Scott”, “I’m a Doctor, not a bricklayer”, “Captain, the engines can’t take it any longer”, “Live Long and Prosper”, and the ubiquitous “Beam me up Scottie”. It was the original authors who came up with the “magic” engine drive that pushed Starships across the Universe. Zefram Cochrane developed the “Warp Engine” out of the ashes of World War III. Cochrane was born in the not so distant future, sometime in the 2030’s. His “Warp Drive” that could bend space, allowed vehicles to shortcut through “subspace” to a far location.
How did Cochrane do it? He discovered that some left over nuclear weapons could be used to make plasma to inject into a “Warp Drive Core”. Later, they found that dilithium crystals could do the job more efficiently. And one of the great dangers on the original Enterprise was degradation of the dilithium crystals: no crystals, no Warp drive.
Appropriation
OK, enough about Star Trek. But it’s not my fault. I blame it on President Trump.
After all, he named the mission to create a vaccine for COVID-19 “Operation Warp Speed”. There is no other “Warp Speed” but from Star Trek, so when Trump starting using Trekkie language, it’s “open season” on using Trek analogies.
And, credit where credit is due, the first half of “Operation Warp Speed” worked. The historic long-term five to ten year process of vaccine development was condensed to less than ten months. (It should be noted that scientists did get a “head start”, working with corona viruses, though not COVID-19, for years). The Pfizer Company chose not to participate in the development phase of “Operation Warp Speed” and developed the vaccine themselves. But others: Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, Astra-Zeneca all did get funding and help from “Warp Speed”. Two vaccines are up and running, two others are just weeks from approval.
But having a vaccine doesn’t mean a thing if it doesn’t get in people’s arms. There is a famous story about the early days of penicillin. As World War II began, if both Churchill and Roosevelt needed the drug, there wasn’t enough available to save them both. Making the drug is one thing, getting it out to the public is quite another.
Herd Immunity
And what does that mean? In the United States there are near 330 million people. “Herd immunity” from COVID-19 is the point when most Americans won’t be at risk from the disease. It requires around eighty percent, or 264 million Americans to either be vaccinated, or have immunity because they contracted COVID. Right now, more than 20 million Americans have been diagnosed with COVID, so we need 220 million Americans to get the vaccine.
“Operation Warp Speed” – the Trump plan, set a target of 20 million Americans vaccinated by January 1st. Here on December 31st, about 2.5 million have actually received the first shot (of two). We aren’t at “Warp Speed”; in Trekkie terms we are operating on “impulse power” only, or maybe just on “maneuvering thrusters”. At the rate were going, we won’t get to “herd immunity” until 2030, about the time Zefram Cochrane is supposed to be born.
The Process
What is the problem? The “model” that President Trump used to disseminate the vaccine, is the same one used throughout the COVID crisis. His idea is that the Federal Government may supply the materials: the tests, the protective gear, and suggestions on how to stop the spread. But it’s up to the state and local governments to put all of those into effect.
There are two reasons for this. First, it places the responsibility for the hard decisions, like closing businesses and schools and locking down residents, on local authorities. And that works for the President politically. He’s the big supplier without being the “bad guy”. When it’s to his advantage, he attacked the state and local leaders required to make tough choices. And second, it pushed a lot of the costs from the Federal Government onto the State and Local governments. Trump didn’t get stuck with the bill.
So “Operation Warp Speed” is producing a lot of vaccine. Those vials are getting on trucks, and headed out to the states. And that’s where they stop. State and Local Departments of Health are already incredibly overburdened with testing and tracing. And those same agencies are being attacked both by politicians and civilians because of the health restrictions they recommend.
Now add to that the need to prioritize, organize, and optimize vaccinations. It’s no surprise that they are failing, like a dilithium crystal left in the warp core chamber far too long. It’s like the Starship Enterprise with a cadet crew (isn’t that the theme of the movie, The Wrath of Khan?).
Where No Vaccine Has Gone Before
What needs to happen? We need the organizational structure of James T. Kirk, Captain, or maybe even the more sophisticated command of The Next Generation’s Jean Luc Picard. We need the whole Federation, the Federal government of the United States, to step in and get the vaccine to the people. We can’t depend on the Licking County Heath Department to take charge of this; they’re stretched beyond belief already. We need the United Federation of Planets (or the United States of America) to take charge. They’ve got the resources, the personnel, and the mandate to “go where no vaccine has gone before”. Then we really can get to “warp speed”.
“More power, Mr. Scott!!”
