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Updated: December 8, 2020 10:10:54 am
A volunteer from the Center for Clinical Vaccination and Tropical Medicine in Oxford, England, is prepared for a booster shot during Oxford Vaccine Group’s COVID-19 vaccine trials on November 20, 2020 (Andrew Testa / The New York Times) .
Written by Stephen Castle and Elian Peltier
In Bristol, a sports stadium is being converted into a temporary clinic to provide vaccines, as is a racecourse on the outskirts of London. Village hallways, libraries, and parking lots across the country are also fast becoming makeshift vaccination centers, with the government seeking the advice of military planners.
As it prepares to start rolling out a coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, Britain is taking on the biggest logistical challenge the country’s health service has ever faced: vaccinating tens of millions of people against coronavirus in a matter of months. At the same time, law enforcement authorities face a number of potential threats to the security of the vaccination campaign.
Vaccines are expected to begin Tuesday at select hospitals in Britain that have received the first batches of vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech, which must be stored at very low temperatures. But the temporary clinics that are hastily being put together are expected to play a critical role as the mass vaccination program expands.
Retired health workers are being asked for help, while the National Health Service is also recruiting tens of thousands of first-aid workers and others to help administer the injection, as the vaccine becomes available to more and more people. .
“I think all the people who can help should raise their hands,” said Sarah Wollaston, who worked as a physician before serving in Parliament until recently. She just completed part of an online refresher course to qualify to help launch the vaccine.
“Physically, giving someone a vaccine is very simple,” he said. “The challenge is logistics.”
Royal Victoria Infirmary Hospital in Newcastle, England, on December 7, 2020 (Mary Turner / The New York Times)
While industry experts and health officials grapple with it, law enforcement officials and cyber detectives face an equally pressing challenge in the potential security threats surrounding a product in such high demand.
“It is the most valuable asset in the world right now,” said Lisa Forte, a former British counterintelligence employee and partner at Red Goat, a cybersecurity firm. “Naturally, this will attract highly qualified cybercriminals, criminal groups and state actors.”
Europol warned that organized crime groups could target trucks containing vaccines for robberies and kidnappings, and last week Interpol warned against a “spate of all manner of criminal activity related to the COVID-19 vaccine,” which it has described as ” liquid gold”. “
87-year-old man of Indian origin, the first to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in the UK
From the factory to hospitals to other sites, Pfizer vaccine, because it must be stored at around minus 70 degrees Celsius, or minus 94 Fahrenheit, is highly vulnerable to sabotage as well as theft.
Last week, IBM said it had detected a series of cyberattacks in September against companies involved in the distribution of coronavirus vaccines around the world. IBM said the attackers, whose identity could not be determined, had tried to learn how the vaccines would be stored and delivered.
“We have seen petrochemical companies attacked, because they are essential in the production of dry ice that is used to store the vaccine,” said Claire Zaboeva, senior cyber threat analyst at IBM Security X-Force.
As nations compete to be among the first to administer the vaccine, Zaboeva added, state actors or even terrorist groups could attempt to disrupt deliveries. “To make a lot of vaccine doses go bad and useless would be a pretty destructive attack,” he said.
While law enforcement agencies address those concerns, the British health service will have the overwhelming problem of administering a mass vaccination program that will reach the population further and faster than any other public health program in memory.
Success is not guaranteed, given Britain’s uneven logistics record during the COVID-19 crisis. In the early stages of the pandemic, hospitals were chronically short of basic protective equipment such as masks and gloves, putting some workers at risk of infection.
Since then, the government has struggled to establish a test and trace system, despite budgeting about $ 16 billion for the much-criticized project.
The signs alert shoppers to get tested for coronavirus in Newcastle, England, on Monday, December 7, 2020, if they show signs of the virus. (Mary Turner / The New York Times)
Pfizer’s problems sourcing raw materials may already force it to cut the number of vaccine doses promised for delivery this year in Britain, possibly by half, to 5 million. And there is a potential bottleneck in the production of dry ice needed to package and ship the vaccine.
However, experts are cautiously optimistic that the launch of the vaccine will be better than previous clumsy efforts by the government to tackle the pandemic because it will be handled under the umbrella of the National Health Service, which has extensive experience organizing immunizations. massive, like annual flu shots. .
“It’s not going to be without its problems because of its scale and logistics. I’d be surprised if, in six months, something, somewhere, doesn’t go wrong,” said Helen Buckingham, director of strategy and operations for the Nuffield Trust. , a research institute specialized in health.
But the concept of mass vaccination is a familiar one, he added, “and in general people are putting a lot of effort into making this work.”
Vaccines will be offered in three different types of locations: hospitals; doctor’s offices and clinics; and temporary vaccination centers are still being prepared, including passageways, sports stadiums and public buildings. Family physicians, who will bear much of the burden, can draw on their experience of administering at least 15 million flu vaccines each year.
However, vaccination against the coronavirus will be different for several reasons. In addition to the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, Britain is likely to authorize at least two others, one produced by Moderna and the other by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. But it’s unclear when and where each will be available.
NHS National Medical Director Professor Stephen Powis has warned that launching a vaccine will be a “marathon”, not a sprint. (File photo)
Martin Marshall, chairman of the board of the Royal College of General Practitioners, notes that refrigeration requirements, particularly for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, present a complication that doctors don’t have to handle with flu vaccines. Both require a second injection after several weeks, which can be an administrative nightmare.
“We are quite used to offering large vaccination programs, but of course, no one has had to deliver one in a situation where vaccines do not arrive in pre-filled syringes,” Marshall said.
Early plans to vaccinate nursing home residents have been shelved due to the deceptively vexing problem of how to break down the 975-dose batches Pfizer ships and get them safely to those facilities. And it is unclear when, or in what quantity, other vaccines will be available.
All of this has to be done at a time when the healthcare industry is under acute stress, its staff is stretched after months of relentless pressure, and during a winter season when people are generally more susceptible to diseases.
However, Marshall is confident that the launch of the vaccine can be successful.
“I think we can make this work if we work across the NHS and show some flexibility,” he said. “It plays on the strength of the NHS, which is a centralized, organized and managed system, and it also plays on our values.”
