COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be a Logistical Nightmare

Because of the worldwide spread of coronavirus, once the vaccine becomes available, the logistics operation will be working nonstop. The millions of doses must travel great distances from the manufacturers to the doctors and eventually worldwide. This entire process will be coordinated by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state and local health departments.

While these agencies are responsible for distributing vaccines during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the COVID-19 vaccine poses a whole new challenge.

The two leading vaccine candidates in the U.S., Moderna, and collaboration between Pfizer and the German company BioNTech, were the fastest to create and manufacture the vaccines, which is why they quickly progressed to clinical trials. 

Their novel vaccine technology may be speedy; however, it made the resulting vaccines extremely fragile. Because Pfizer/BioNTech has to be frozen at an ultracold -94 degrees Fahrenheit, which is colder than most freezers, it limits the possibility of how and where it can be shipped.

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Air cargo serves a key role in vaccine distribution through well-established global time- and temperature-sensitive distribution systems. This will play a significant role in the fast and efficient transportation and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines once they become available.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said that the mission of the century for the global air cargo industry is to deliver these COVID-19 vaccines safely. To achieve that, careful planning must be done. 

The time to facilitate cooperation across the logistics chain is now. Governments must take the initiative to secure arrangement and border processes for this complex supply and logistics obstacles ahead. 

How the Vaccine Was Made Also Poses a Problem

Both leading vaccine candidates deployed a new technology wherein the core of the vaccine is a piece of mRNA. This genetic material encodes for the spike protein or the part of the coronavirus that enables it to enter human cells. The vaccine induces cells to take up the mRNA and produce the spike protein, which will hopefully stimulate an immune response.

By employing mRNA, vaccine makers no longer need to utilize traditional methods of producing viral proteins or grow viruses, which can all prolong the manufacturing process. This is the reason why Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech were able to get their vaccines into clinical trials so quickly. 

These vaccines were manufactured without preservatives and packaged in vials to hold multiple doses. Although it makes them easier to develop, it makes it harder to administer this on the ground.

Because the mRNA vaccines are packaged in multidose vials, they have to be consumed within six hours of opening. Otherwise, it should be discarded as the unused doses can degrade over time due to the temperature, and may also be contaminated with bacteria because of their lack of preservatives. 

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