Michael Falcone: What should the US do with its surplus vaccines? Follow the playbook it used during WWII Summary: Then as now, a pharmaceutical giveaway lifts all boats. Such are the potential benefits that U.S. corporations might even consider doing the donating themselves. Just like today's Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, penicillin was developed in an ambitious, federally subsidized crash program. Corporations in the 1940s temporarily accepted government money and coordination, which put them in a position to continue developing, selling and profiting from antibiotics for the rest of the century. Written By: Michael Falcone, Los Angeles Times | 11:00 am, Apr. 5, 2021