Lets look at both sides of the coin here - this is research, it isn't meant to be quick. Throwing lots of money into research is about letting lots of people try to tackle a problem to find the 1 person in the ignorant, seething mass of average humans who happens to know how. It is expected that most money on research will be wasted funding people who, in hindsight, had no idea and were doing something that was in fore- and hind- sight obviously not going to work [0].
Although, that said, I do want to stand up for the anti-government argument here. The NIH isn't going to be as effective as a private market at identifying who is effective. Everyone is affected by COVID, it isn't like they need to force people with money to take an interest in what is happening here. Ironically, although the NIH is effectively throwing people at a problem here to play the odds, we'd probably find that a private organisation is much better at it by similar logic. I'd keep an eye on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation myself, Gates seemed to be quite busy through COVID. Similar efforts by other wealthy people are also likely to be happening.
[0] Vulcanization is a fun example. Both in fore- and hind- sight the experiment didn't work. Dude just happened to be clumsy.
Although, that said, I do want to stand up for the anti-government argument here. The NIH isn't going to be as effective as a private market at identifying who is effective. Everyone is affected by COVID, it isn't like they need to force people with money to take an interest in what is happening here. Ironically, although the NIH is effectively throwing people at a problem here to play the odds, we'd probably find that a private organisation is much better at it by similar logic. I'd keep an eye on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation myself, Gates seemed to be quite busy through COVID. Similar efforts by other wealthy people are also likely to be happening.
[0] Vulcanization is a fun example. Both in fore- and hind- sight the experiment didn't work. Dude just happened to be clumsy.