The entire
world, craving to return to normal from COVID-19, is on a race to develop a
safe and effective vaccine. The pandemic has definitely created a buzz within
the scientific community. A
number of vaccines are being attempted in ways that have never been
deployed before. As Chandrakant Lahariya, a
New Delhi based epidemiologist, vaccine expert and public health specialist
said, “The scientists can be compared to the 15th-century sea explorers who went on a voyage to find the ‘new world’. All the routes
were tried at and whoever was lucky found a new place.
Vasco da Gama arrived in Goa and Christopher Columbus ended
up on the shores of what we call today the US, thinking he
had reached India. The scientific community is following a similar
approach to find a vaccine for Covid-19. All of us hope that more than one
of them succeeds.”
With the development of potential vaccines for Covid-19
coming into the picture, it’s time to plan and invest in infrastructure for the
distribution and delivery of the vaccine. In this context, the policymakers
must consider two key questions, how will their country get access to a
COVID-19 vaccine? And if it does how to ensure fair and equitable
distribution among its population? The answer to this is a rational and
objective strategy that ensures an effective timeframe for availability and
addresses the challenges which could be faced pertaining to the logistics and
distribution which should be carefully planned and worked out. As Bill Gates rightly said, “During a pandemic, vaccines and antivirals
can’t simply be sold to the highest bidder. They should be available and
affordable for people who are at the heart of the outbreak and in greatest
need. Not only is such distribution the right thing to do, it’s also the right
strategy for short-circuiting transmission and preventing future pandemics.”
It is likely that after a
Covid-19 vaccine becomes available, initially the
vaccine will not be available for everyone, and will only
be offered to high-risk individuals such as health workers, elderly and people
with co-morbidities. Even to cater to this small
population, billions of doses will need to be manufactured, meaning
collaboration between industry, regulators and the scientific community will be
pivotal. Moreover, since we need to get them out to every part of the world, and we need all of this to
happen as quickly as possible, global coordination is very crucial. Keeping this in mind, establishment
of manufacturing plants and maintenance of reliable supply chains is a must. Since
most vaccines need to be kept between two and eight degrees Celsius. New
technologies such as solar direct drive refrigerators can help especially in
places where the electricity sources are unreliable. Accordingly, there
needs to be a global agreement on distributing stocks to countries around the
world and if that doesn’t happen, the result will be political tensions like
those currently prevalent in the world over the allocation of personal
protective equipment, ventilators, and test kits.
Therefore, the only way to ensure a robust production and a
universal administration of the vaccine would be by mapping out effective
distribution policies and protocols. As Seth Berkley, CEO of vaccine alliance GAVI has said, “We have
a global problem that requires a global solution. We need the best science in
the world. We need the best manufacturing in the world. And obviously we need
industries from around the world to engage. If we have anybody left over
anywhere as a reservoir of virus, it not only threatens them, but threatens the
world.” So, while we keep our fingers crossed for the
much awaited miracle, that is, a safe and effective vaccine, we need to
continue to take preventive measures such as wearing face masks
in public, regularly washing our hands with soap (or sanitise with
alcohol-based disinfectant), following cough
etiquettes and maintaining social distancing, which would
continue to be key weapons in our fight
against the Covid-19.
Ms. Christy Sojan, III PharmD
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