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    How Operation Warp Speed's Big Vaccine Contracts Could Stay Secret

    More than $6 billion in federal funding has been routed through a firm that manages defense contracts, making the agreements subject to less federal scrutiny and transparency.
    by Sydney Lupkin Sep 29, 2020 6 minutes
    President Trump announced the creation of Operation Warp Speed in May to fast-track a coronavirus vaccine. He called it "a massive scientific and industrial, logistic endeavor unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project."

    The Trump administration has compared Operation Warp Speed's crash program to develop a COVID-19 vaccine to the Manhattan Project. And like the notoriously secretive government project to make the first atomic bomb, the details of Operation Warp Speed's work may take a long time to unravel.

    One reason is that Operation Warp Speed is issuing billions of dollars' worth of coronavirus vaccine contracts to companies through a nongovernment intermediary, bypassing the regulatory oversight and transparency of traditional federal contracting mechanisms, NPR has learned.

    Instead of entering into contracts directly with vaccine makers, more than $6 billion in Operation Warp Speed funding has been routed through a defense contract management firm called Advanced Technologies International, Inc. ATI then awarded contracts to companies working on COVID-19 vaccines.

    As a result, the contracts between the pharmaceutical companies and ATI may not be available through public records requests, and additional documents are exempt from public disclosure for five years.

    Vaccine contracts awarded this way include $1.6 billion for Novavax, $1.95 billion

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