Vaccine Distribution - The Logistics Challenge of a Lifetime

An effective vaccine distribution strategy requires near-perfection across the supply chain, orchestrating billions of vaccines from manufacturing facilities across various transportation modes, in sensitive climate-controlled environments, and to their final destinations.

The Quick Read:

• Developing a vaccine for a novel virus may be the easy part; distributing one or multiple temperature-sensitive doses to 7.8 billion people will be the real challenge.
• As little as a one-degree temperature variation in transport can cause a vaccine to spoil and be discarded; the WHO estimates 25-50% of vaccines are wasted annually, largely due to inappropriate temperature controls.
• Large parts of Africa, Asia and South America do not have cold chain networks suitable for the leading vaccine prospects, and some health care suppliers are already hoarding dry ice.