They had to move at the "speed of science" after all.
What is that supposed to mean? The scientific method is slow, as you test and retest your hypotheses, go through peer-review and never accept it fully, keep trying to disprove your hypotheses.
To me, it sounds like a blatant admission that by "science" we no longer mean the scientific method but whatever the government says.
He didn´t ask about efficacy, but about "stopping transmission". Not the same, but her answer anyway is complete bullshit. First, as you say "at the speed of science" makes no sense at all, but also "to understand what is taking place on the market". They were not supposed to do a market research but develop safe medications, and they totally failed on this.
The "imperial collage" from where she cites the shilling study is known for their nonsense epi models.