The COVID19 pandemic has resulted in throwing people’s lives out of gear. It claimed many people’s lives and snatched away numerous people’s livelihoods across the world, leading to rising poverty levels.
The efficient distribution of COVID19 vaccines is imperative to restore the global economy and protect people from contracting the Coronavirus. With premier drug companies, Pfizer and Moderna, making their COVID19 vaccines ready for distribution, the world is waiting for a mass vaccination program.
Even before the US arrived at a decision, the UK’s medicine regulatory authority authorized Pfizer’s vaccine’s emergency use. Subsequently, the UK government bought 40 million doses of the vaccine.
At first, the vaccination involved administration to 400,000 of the highest-risk category of people. Notably, the second dose showed 95 percent efficacy.
After the UK, the US government granted emergency use authorization for the vaccine, leading to the vaccine distribution.
However, the distribution has led to an increase in the vaccine capacity, which brought unprecedented challenges in ensuring an inclusive and safe distribution to administer frontline healthcare workers, high-risk groups, and eventually all people worldwide.
The Challenges
The planning needs to be done in a never-before way. By now, all COVID19 vaccine producers have announced that they will release more than 21 billion vaccine doses in 2021.
We can expect six to seven billion doses to be shipped in the first wave of distribution. After that, we can expect many countries to attain the World Health Organisation’s minimum target of 20 percent immunization.
In the vaccine distribution, the role of COVAX also deserves mention. It is a joint venture of the World Health Organization, Gavi-the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations. COVAX is working with UNICEF to coordinate the distribution of vaccines to low to middle-income countries. As a result, the scale of tasks for COVAX also has grown bigger.
For the first distribution of vaccines to 92 countries, COVAX’s initiative represents two to three times UNICEF’s yearly routine vaccination program.
Moreover, the World Economic Forum Supply Chain and Transport Industry team has been coordinating with the leading logistics and transportation companies to tackle the logistical challenges in distributing the vaccines.
The first challenge involved in the vaccine distribution process is the spread of different geographies. As more than 90 percent of all COVID19 vaccines will be produced in the US, Europe, India, and China, the significant importers will be Africa and Asia (excluding India and China).
According to a joint-estimate of the World Economic Forum and McKinsey, Europe and India, the largest exporting nations, will ship approximately one billion doses each in the first wave to actuate 20 percent global immunization. Out of the first wave distribution, 600 million doses will go to Africa and 1,100 million to Asia(excluding India and China).
Top drug-maker, Pfizer, has announced that it will produce 1.3 billion doses of its COVID19 vaccine in 2021. And the announcement also signals the need for investing in an ultra-low temperature freezer for storing the vaccine, preserving the potency. Pfizer’s vaccine necessitates a storage temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius. In the event of failure to maintain the storage temperature, damage to the vaccine will result.
Despite all countries having logistical challenges, African countries will need more support in the vaccine distribution process. Constrained air cargo capacity will affect international vaccine distribution. But, chartered flights can help solve the problem.
In African countries, logistics capabilities are not as matured as those of advanced countries. Besides, the cold chain logistics are also not up to the mark. The most challenging aspects in those countries are airport handling, warehousing, dry ice facilities, and the last-mile in rural areas.
How to Deal With Challenges?
There is no alternative to dealing with the challenges, so let us see how prudently the distribution community can effectively distribute the vaccines across the globe. Here are the ways:
- Enter into partnerships with governments, customs authorities, and NGOs for leveraging the collective strength to safely and quickly distribute the vaccines. The initiatives in this context can include getting pre-clearance, airspace clearance, documentation, and training.
- When necessary, share assets to sort out bottlenecks and fill potential gaps in the vaccine supply chain, such as consolidating air cargo volumes, deploying reefer containers, sharing re-icing facilities and warehouse spaces, or consolidating last-mile volumes.
- Extend your expertise to support governments to advise on solutions related to vaccine distribution planning.
- Support COVAX in its coordination and respond positively to its requests for assets, information, resources, or emergency calls for action.
Conclusion
The unprecedented challenges are thrown by the COVID19 vaccine distribution call for innovative and bold collective actions from governments and businesses to distribute the vaccines across the globe effectively.