[Goose]

Operations and logistics are not sexy, but they will mean the difference between success and failure of the vaccine rollout.  A transition in government is not the best time to be rolling one of these things out, so that will add to the complexity.

Thankfully, operations and logistics are well-known problems, and there is a lot of expertise available to tap.  It will be complex, but it is solvable.  I'm thinking of the collective algorithmic efficiency between Amazon, UPS, FedEx, DHL, and, of course, the USPS, among others.  Imagine the collective might that brought you overnight/same-day delivery brought to bear on this vaccine distribution problem.  At least, I'm hoping enough of the right people will be working on this.

You can get overnight delivery on products stored super-cold (liquid nitrogen) right now without any problem. FedEx offers the service, and probably others do too. It is more a problem on the receiving end. If you don't have a place to store the product then you must consume it all rapidly. That is the more serious problem. If there is a shipping delay of a day or so, the product will remain cold and not be harmed. If it has to sit in somebody's stockroom for weeks there is a problem. Hospitals (of any size) can probably get storage capability easily. Doctor's offices not so much.

CVS pharmacy and the like is more where the issue is muddy. I know that our CVS pharmacy receives some vaccines in weekly sized shipments. The goal is to not store piles of it at the pharmacy. That is one reason you must make an appointment to get some of the vaccines. I also know they don't have the ability (or training) to store things at below refrigerator standards. These type of facilities are the ones with a difficult choice. Reliable daily delivery to all such facilities of super cold products is probably beyond the capacity of the delivery providers and will remain so. There are just too many of them. Weekly is certainly possible. With a properly designed shipping Dewar I would hope they could get one week storage capability even in cases where delivery is delayed (stuff happens). That is what I hope they are working hard at developing and validating.

[Goose]

Operations and logistics are not sexy, but they will mean the difference between success and failure of the vaccine rollout.  A transition in government is not the best time to be rolling one of these things out, so that will add to the complexity.

Thankfully, operations and logistics are well-known problems, and there is a lot of expertise available to tap.  It will be complex, but it is solvable.  I'm thinking of the collective algorithmic efficiency between Amazon, UPS, FedEx, DHL, and, of course, the USPS, among others.  Imagine the collective might that brought you overnight/same-day delivery brought to bear on this vaccine distribution problem.  At least, I'm hoping enough of the right people will be working on this.

You can get overnight delivery on products stored super-cold (liquid nitrogen) right now without any problem. FedEx offers the service, and probably others do too. It is more a problem on the receiving end. If you don't have a place to store the product then you must consume it all rapidly. That is the more serious problem. If there is a shipping delay of a day or so, the product will remain cold and not be harmed. If it has to sit in somebody's stockroom for weeks there is a problem. Hospitals (of any size) can probably get storage capability easily. Doctor's offices not so much.

CVS pharmacy and the like is more where the issue is muddy. I know that our CVS pharmacy receives some vaccines in weekly sized shipments. The goal is to not store piles of it at the pharmacy. That is one reason you must make an appointment to get some of the vaccines. I also know they don't have the ability (or training) to store things at below refrigerator standards. These type of facilities are the ones with a difficult choice. Reliable daily delivery to all such facilities of super cold products is probably beyond the capacity of the delivery providers and will remain so. There are just too many of them. Weekly is certainly possible. With a properly designed shipping Dewar I would hope they could get one week storage capability even in cases where delivery is delayed (stuff happens). That is what I hope they are working hard at developing and validating.