Abundance

by Ezra Klein

In all, the US government spent less than $40 billion to develop, produce, and buy mRNA COVID vaccines.63 It might be one of the best bang-for-buck policies in US history. COVID vaccines prevented up to 20 million64 excess deaths worldwide, with several million of those saved lives directly attributable to the acceleration of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Tens of millions of hospitalizations were prevented by the further prevention of severe disease. One analysis by three US economists estimated that the lives saved in just the eight months of the vaccinations were worth $6.5 trillion.65 Stacked up against more popular American programs, such as the Apollo program, Warp Speed’s accomplishment shines even brighter. For all the wondrous drama and exploratory genius of touching a human foot to moon dust, the Apollo missions did not directly save any lives or unveil any new technologies, even as they accelerated the development of computer chips and related fields.