By Yaakov Ophir at Brownstone dot org.

"I'm approaching this as a doctor, not as a senator… I applaud you [Secretary Kennedy] for joining the president in a call for radical transparency…I believe it that President Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed. If he had been President Obama, he would have gotten it.

But because of Operation Warp Speed, forcing the federal government to come to a vaccine development within 10 months when others said it couldn't be done, we saved millions of lives globally, trillions of dollars."

The opening quote of this column was not pulled from a campaign rally or a cable news hit. It was stated by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) during the Senate Finance Committee hearing on September 4, 2025. Cassidy addressed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., pressing him to agree that Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed.

Later in the same hearing, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) returned to the same point, demanding that Kennedy state clearly whether he agreed.

So where did this sudden talk of a Nobel Prize come from? To answer that, we need to go back a few days. On September 1, 2025, Trump surprised the world with a puzzling social media post:

"It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree! With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW…I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as 'BRILLIANT' as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why???"

The post had dramatic effects. Suddenly, the "brilliancy" of the Covid vaccines was being questioned by the President of the United States himself - and at a very delicate moment. A federal investigation team was established by the CDC to review the efficacy and safety of these vaccines and determine whether reports of adverse events and vaccine-related mortality had been concealed. It is now clear why Trump addressed the pharmaceutical companies explicitly in that post:

I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not???…I want them to show them NOW, to CDC and the public, and clear up this MESS, one way or the other!!!

This direct engagement - almost an accusation - required a reply. And indeed, shortly thereafter, on September 3, Pfizer published a statement under the title: "Pfizer Responds to Success of Operation Warp Speed and Reaffirms Transparency of COVID Vaccine Data." The statement was carefully crafted. It added the Nobel Prize to the stakes. Perhaps now, Trump would be persuaded to favor their side in the looming battle. Pfizer put it this way:

"The success of Operation Warp Speed (OWS) and U.S. development of mRNA vaccines is a profound public health achievement. Under President Trump's leadership, American innovation led the world, helping prevent economic collapse and saving more than 14 million lives globally…Such an accomplishment would typically be worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, given its significant impact."

Two Truths That Shatter the Nobel Hype

Importantly, the Nobel motif is not only a tactic to flatter President Trump. It also serves as a sophisticated method to establish a supposedly uncontroversial premise for the entire debate - that the vaccines "saved millions of lives" - while diverting attention away from their harms.

We saw this tactic already in May 2025, when Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) opened a Senate hearing with the following statement:

"As we talk about the side effects of COVID vaccines, I think we need to be clear about the most important fact. For all Americans, COVID-19 vaccines have saved millions and millions of lives. There is no scientific question about that fact…"

This brings us to the heart of the matter. There are two essential points that must not be lost beneath the glitter of Nobel rheto...