STILL FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT
H
ow we take care of the American people directly impacts the success of our national security goals and force posturing around the globe. Perhaps more than any crisis in recent memory, COVID-
19 presents a serious obstacle, which actively threatens the health and safety of Americans here at home and abroad.
In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sought out DOD to support and partner in their rapid public health acquisition needs, particularly to identify, deliver and distribute vaccines to save lives against the virus that causes COVID-19. Tus we had Operation Warp Speed, and later the Countermeasures Acceleration Group, before it became a team within HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, now known as the HHS Coordi- nation Operations and Response Element. DOD was well versed in the mRNA vaccine platform (the technology both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines employ) and had experience with inno- vative contracting practices with unique acquisition authorities under the Defense Production Act. Tese experiences made DOD an ideal partner for HHS and the nation’s public health acqui- sition needs during the past two or so years of the pandemic.
One billion COVID-19 vaccine doses and one billion free at-home COVID-19 tests are two of the milestones one office at the forefront of DOD’s accomplishments achieved. Tose victo- ries should put the United States on stronger footing, particularly as it continues to prepare for the next battles with the SARS- CoV2 virus and its variants and subvariants.
Te Joint Assisted Acquisition (JA2) team—DOD’s assisted acquisition cell in the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense’s (JPEO- CBRND)—has had the critical mission to support HHS in its most pressing COVID-19 acquisition needs. Te JA2 team brings together medical specialists, logisticians and acquisition experts, and uses unique acquisition authorities (i.e., the Defense Produc- tion Act) that enable agile procurement of lifesaving medical
countermeasures in record time. JPEO-CBRND’s creation of the JA2 team allowed a mechanism to better manage workloads supporting DOD-specific programs and the national response.
JA2 also allowed JPEO-CBRND to bring on new staff to continue to support HHS’ critical COVID-19 medical counter- measures procurement efforts. At this writing, JPEO-CBRND helped HHS obligate more than $65.7 billion across 200-plus unique COVID-19 contracting efforts.
Te JA2 team has three distinct levels of effort within the mission to support HHS, as outlined in the May 2021 memorandum of understanding: Expand the domestic industrial capacity of health and medical resources; procure diagnostics and medical supplies for the Strategic National Stockpile and the most pressing current pandemic needs; and accelerate the development, manu- facture and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics. Te JA2 team is partnering closely with the Army Contracting Command Joint COVID-19 Response Division (ACC-JCRD) to support the various program portfolio needs listed above. Te intent is to help HHS address the current pandemic and get ahead of future public health threats, through investments in our domestic industrial base to support production of lifesaving products critical to the nation and DOD.
LIFESAVING PROTECTION FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE JA2’s efforts to procure vaccines, therapeutics and enablers (i.e., needles, vials and other critical items needed to administer vaccines and therapeutics) have been essential to the nation; this is where JA2’s vaccines, therapeutics and enablers team jumped into action. From the very beginning of the pandemic, JPEO-CBRND worked closely in the whole-of-government COVID-19 response. Experts at the Joint Program Manager for CBRN Medical and the Joint Product Lead for CBRND Enabling Biotechnologies were natural choices for experts and resources to be involved from the outset. JPEO-CBRND is well-equipped to provide lifesaving protection for the nation through its extensive experience with
The speed at which these acquisition processes moved is unprecedented for an effort this large.
70 Army AL&T Magazine Summer 2022
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