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On the 13th (local time), when the accumulated death toll of Corona 19 exceeded 300,000 in the United States, the ‘vaccine transport operation’ began. With the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the urgent use of the Pfizer vaccine and the recommendation of the CDC for the use of the vaccine, the vaccine was finally distributed in the United States. From pharmaceutical factories to courier companies and airlines, hospitals and pharmacies, and state governments, distribution and vaccines have been bundled together to ensure smooth progress. Vaccination D-Day in the United States is expected to be the 14th as early as the 14th, and national leaders like Joe Biden are interested in when they will be vaccinated and if it will be open to the public to address mistrust in vaccines, which is considered the biggest challenge.
Let’s put the first box, ‘Greetings’ … 14-day outlook for D-day
According to a foreign press on the 13th (local time), trucks loaded with vaccines from the Pfizer factory in Calamer, Michigan, left one after another for the airport and major transportation hubs that morning. As the first box was loaded onto the truck, applause and cheers erupted. The vaccine will reach 363 locations in the United States within this week, starting with 145 sites that day. Currently, the number of confirmed corona19 cases in the United States has exceeded 16 million and the death toll has exceeded 300,000. This is the background that the US media simultaneously described this transportation operation as a ‘historic moment’.
Pfizer vaccines are processed and shipped from a total of three factories. Raw materials made at the St. Louis, Missouri plant are processed for injection into the human body using its own technology at the Andover, Massachusetts plant, and then placed in glass bottles at the Calamer State plant. For distribution and storage at -70 degrees Celsius, Pfizer has built dry ice manufacturing facilities at its Calamer State factory and at the Wisconsin storage facility. Specially manufactured containers were also mobilized, including tuna and dry ice containers. A box weighing approximately 36.2 kg (80 pounds) contains 195 vaccines, which is equivalent to 975 doses. A thermometer and a satellite positioning device (GPS) were also installed in the transport box to be able to identify changes in state.
Pfizer also produces the vaccine at the Poors plant in Belgium. Late last month, some 750,000 doses arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for the first time on a United Airlines freighter. Since then, United Airlines has brought the vaccine from Belgium to the United States five times. The safe vaccine will be delivered to 24 million priority vaccination targets, such as hospital medical staff and residents of long-term care facilities, targeting major bases via trucks and cargo planes such as FedEx and UPS. The first vaccination is expected to begin on the 14th. The US government expects 40 million doses of vaccine to be delivered this month. The United States government estimates that around 30% of the population, that is, 100 million people, will be vaccinated next March.
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Vaccines are not the only thing you need in the logistics process. Diagnostic kits, masks, syringes, needles, saline solution, alcohol veil, etc., necessary for vaccination, should also be carried. Medical equipment dealer McKesson stocked these items at all major bases. To ensure proper transportation, UPS has also conducted simulation tests of the transportation of vaccines and important medical supplies across the country on freighters or trucks. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) wrote that “for vaccines to be distributed smoothly, complex and numerous supply chains must be maintained simultaneously.”
Lack of control tower and distrust in vaccines ‘the greatest challenge’
Some were concerned about the absence of a control tower to oversee the complex and diverse transportation process. “There is no one in command overall,” said Professor Yoshi Sheffi, director of the Center for Transportation and Logistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “There is a lot of work to be done,” he said, and he was concerned about delayed deliveries, paralysis in front-line medical fields and the possibility of spreading the virus through medical workers.
A bigger concern is how to overcome the widespread mistrust of vaccines. In a Gallup poll earlier this month, only 63% of Americans said they would get the vaccine. The figure is higher than 50% in September, but lower than the July survey. Even in a survey of 1,117 adult men and women in the United States from 3-7 by the Associated Press and the Public Opinion Research Center (NORC), 26% of those surveyed said they would not get the vaccine. WSJ said, “The next thing the US government should do is convince people to get vaccinated.”
CNN quoted Dr. Jonathan Reiner, former medical adviser to the George W. Bush (son Bush) administration, as saying: “President-elect Biden and Vice President Camela Harris should get publicly vaccinated as soon as possible.” This is because public vaccinations by state leaders can reduce mistrust of vaccines somewhat. However, it is unclear whether the vaccine will be given priority to high-level positions on Biden’s procurement committee, including Biden and Harris. In this regard, Biden’s procurement committee said, “We will follow the recommendations of Anthony Pouch, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID),” regarding Biden’s vaccination plan, Bloomberg News reported.
Meanwhile, key White House officials, as well as high-ranking executives, parliamentary and judicial positions were also included in the priorities. An official told the New York Times (NYT) that he was “in accordance with the ‘National Continuity Policy’ established in 2016.” Reuters cited a source and White House officials wrote that the vaccination would take place within ten days. However, in October, Trump, who had already recovered from the coronavirus, wrote on Twitter that “I am not going to get the vaccine.” He said: “People in the White House should get vaccinated a little late unless it’s particularly necessary.” As the vaccine was released, it was analyzed that she was aware that some people were making fun of whether the vaccine was released.
