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The first challenge is to mobilize scientists from around the world: to achieve, as quickly as possible, produce a vaccine capable of stopping the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic. However, there is a next step that must be planned on time and without which the production of a vaccine is irrelevant: the ability to make it travel the world and reach everywhere in droves.
The accounts are beginning to be done: being able to transport a single dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, taking it up to 7.8 billion people, will require the use of 8,000 “jumbo jets”, large planes (such as the Boeing 747 and 767 models and the Airbus A330) that can accommodate more passengers and cargo, but whose days are even numbered, due to the high costs and the lack of return to the height that they imply for the airlines. And the accounts are made with optimism, because it is anticipated that it will be necessary to transport several doses of the vaccine, and not just one per person.
Concerned, the aviation industry and IATA – International Air Transport Association are beginning to take a position. In an alert released by the British newspaper The Guardian, the international aviation group claims to be working with airlines, airports, health organizations and pharmaceutical companies to plan the circulation of a vaccine around the world, but has already encountered several possible obstacles.
There are those who call it “the mission of the century” for the “global air cargo industry”, as the director general of the International Air Transport Association, Alexandre de Juniac, quoted by The Guardian. Among the outstanding doubts are the limitations in the circulation of products in different parts of the world – and between countries on different continents – and also the predictable specificities of this type of air transport because, recalls the British newspaper, “vaccines must also be stored in a specific temperature, which means that not all airplanes are prepared to transport them ”.
Even if we assume that half of the required vaccines can be transported by land, the air cargo industry will still face the biggest challenge of transporting a single product. When planning their vaccination programs, particularly in developing countries, governments must take into account the limited air cargo capacity that exists at the moment, ”said De Juniac.
The IATA director general also warned, quoted by The Guardian, of the impossibility of transporting the necessary doses of the vaccine to all parts of the world if there are no significant changes: “If the borders remain closed, if the reduction in the number of traveling if you float [de aviões das transportadores aéreas] they remain ashore and if the current downsizing is sustained, the ability to distribute life-saving vaccines will be greatly compromised. “
