MP v 2.0

A small group of scientists and billionaires have formed a "Manhattan Project" to defeat the coronavirus.

They call themselves Scientists to Stop Covid-19, and they include chemical biologists, an immunobiologist, a neurobiologist, a chronobiologist, an oncologist, a gastroenterologist, an epidemiologist and a nuclear scientist. Of the scientists at the center of the project, biologist Michael Rosbash, a 2017 Nobel Prize winner, said, “There’s no question that I’m the least qualified.”

Tom Cahill (WSJ photo)

Tom Cahill, 33-year-old venture capitalist with a bioscience PhD from Duke, hosted a conference call on the status of COVID-19 research in early March. The call was quickly oversubscribed and birthed the aforementioned group to address the multifaceted problems posed by the virus.

Much of the early work involved divvying up hundreds of scientific papers on the crisis from around the world. They separated promising ideas from dubious ones. Each member blazed through as many as 20 papers a day, around 10 times the pace they would in their day jobs.

The group's objectives are ambitious:

We envision a first wave of therapies using existing drugs that will establish a beachhead in the fight against the virus (testing in April-May 2020, use immediately afterwards). A second wave of potent new antibody drugs developed specifically to neutralize COVID-19 offer a promising combination of speed, safety, and likelihood of being effective (testing in June-August 2020, use afterwards). A third wave of vaccines for long-term victory over the virus will offer seasonal or multi-year immunity to COVID-19 (testing in March 2020-March 2021, use afterwards). In parallel, reopening of businesses and schools to restore our society and economy (implementation in May-June 2020, lasting until the threat has passed) will use science-driven symptom reporting, virus testing, and personal protective gear to minimize future COVID-19 outbreaks and additional loss of life.

Those involved with the creation of the atomic bomb--Oppenheimer, Seaborg, Feynmann, Fermi--became some of the most famous names in 20th Century science.

If the 21st century version of the Manhattan Project achieves its objectives, then its participants, who by the way have forsworn monetary enrichment or politics, will rightly deserve the accolades that will come their way.