The sophisticated American consumer has grown accustomed to the gold standard for drug and health products—the prospective randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (RCT). Operation Warp Speed (OWS) was supposed to be a churning mill of large RCTs to help the nation understand what conclusively is effective in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
Unfortunately, after three years, OWS has delivered failed products (remdesivir, baricitinib, molnupiravir, COVID-19 vaccines) and small inconclusive trials of products that doctors have found effective in practice, including off-target generic antivirals and anticoagulants. Operation Warp Speed didn’t test simple, affordable, available prevention strategies. Fortunately, such RCTs were done outside of the United States and have brought us important findings.
