by Om Paithankar
The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated millions of lives worldwide. With nearly 350,000 deaths in the U.S. alone, the number of new cases has only continued to grow. Through this chaos, most Americans stationed our hope in pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporations to develop a safe and effective vaccine over an unparalleled time span. On this front, they have delivered. However, a long series of obstacles lies ahead in safely distributing and administering the vaccines around the world and domestically for what will mark the largest mass vaccination in American history.
Most vaccines take 10-15 years to develop and approve in America; the timely approval of the vaccines for the virus is in great part due to Operation Warp Speed, a multi-billion dollar federal program centered around streamlining the process of research, clinical trials, development, and approval of a vaccine for COVID-19. The FDA approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 10 and the Moderna vaccine on December 17, and distribution began about 24 hours following the approval.
However, distribution of these vaccines introduces many logistical hurdles. Most manufacturing facilities for the Pfizer vaccine are overseas and therefore, the vaccines must be flown across the world using planes from commercial airlines. Additionally, both vaccines, particularly the Pfizer vaccine, must be kept at low temperatures—the Moderna vaccine between 36˚ and 46˚ F and Pfizer’s at a frigid -94˚ F. This means that the Pfizer vaccine will require specialized containers with thermal sensors to ensure that it remains viable during distribution. Because of these inevitable bumps in the road and limited supply of transportation methods and necessary products such as the specialized thermal boxes, and even lack of essentials like vials despite months of manufacturing in advance, the CDC devised a plan for the vaccine to be distributed in a specific order to different demographics of the American public based on a variety of factors. These include risk, employment, and both if they are related, such as healthcare workers who have a high rate of exposure to the virus in their employment duties and essential workers, such as first responders and educators. Next, high-risk adults above the age of 65 will receive the vaccine. This means that healthy people under 65 will most likely not receive the vaccine until April at the earliest.
However, although these unfortunate obstacles will delay when most Americans receive the vaccine, they will ultimately prove to be quite fortunate with regard to the economy. The increase in need for hands in the manufacturing and distribution sectors has and will continue to mitigate unemployment rates which skyrocketed earlier on in the year due to the COVID-related layoffs.
The main obstacle, however, arises from President’s Trump’s management of the pandemic in the U.S. Thus far, rather than using his executive power to intervene, Trump has left states to fend for themselves when it comes to handling the logistics of the pandemic through actions such as finding PPE for healthcare workers or obtaining potential antiviral drugs to treat the disease. Although we have seen increased use of executive power by Trump when it has come to developing and distributing a vaccine, having initiated Operation Warp Speed and also promising at least the initial round of vaccines free to all Americans, we can still expect a lot more of the same hands-off approach from President Trump with regard vaccine distribution, which will make it all the more difficult for individual states to ensure that they receive the vaccine in the necessary quantity. After recently losing the election, Trump has shown absolutely no interest in handling issues related to the pandemic, throwing himself in a frenzy of dead duck lawsuits and pardons. Fortunately, Biden’s election and inauguration in January will set a much more stable course in which the federal government will intervene when necessary.
Due to the early success of vaccine distribution so far (most healthcare workers have already received at least the initial round of the shot) as well as Biden’s election, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have shown themselves to be a promising and relatively timely solution to the COVID crisis in the United States.