How the massive plan to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine could make history – and leverage blockchain like never before

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Finding a coronavirus vaccine is key, but finding a way to distribute it on a global scale will be equally crucial. This effort will take building a manufacturing and supply chain capacity larger than ever before, more quickly than ever for vaccine distribution. That success also requires leveraging tools and capabilities – such as blockchain – in a way never seen before in the history of fighting pandemics.

Scale and the challenge ahead

Decades of running immunization programs by UNICEF and Gavi Alliance tell us that vaccine supply chain and delivery takes years to stabilize depending on the geography. For instance, polio immunizations in India took more than a decade to cover 100% of the population’s children – 175 million under age five. The Pulse Polio immunization program was launched in 1995 with the last case reported in 2011.

Additionally, UNICEF, world’s largest vaccine buyer for children, procured 2.43 billion doses of vaccines in 2019 to reach approximately less than half of the world’s children under five for an effort covering a range of diseases (including measles, diarrhoea, pneumonia and polio).

The unique challenge of scale is greater in the COVID-19 pandemic and that challenge is precedent setting. This vaccine must cover every country in every continent and every person in every age group. Assuming the approved vaccine requires just one dosage per individual, at least 7 billion doses of the vaccine will need to be in the hands of healthcare workers. Assuming a 20-30% loss during transit and storage, this could mean close to 10 billion doses in the supply chain. Should the vaccine administration require two dosages per individual, the volume needed could top 19 billion vials.

A supply chain for COVID-19’s vaccine will also be unique. While multiple geo-political, economic and nationalistic interests will influence who discovers the cure, who manufactures it, who funds it and who needs it, the supply chain must be “equitable.” There must be a global consensus on who should get it first, one not based on who can buy it first. Such an equitable supply chain can only be built on a doubtless, openly verifiable, consensus-driven system having immutable integrity of data with no single source of control. To achieve the global optimum, instead of a national or regional optimum, vaccine access will critically depend on an information system with the highest possible integrity, capable of avoiding forces of vested interests. Thus, blockchain and distributed ledger technology will be essential for an equitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

Additionally, the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain information system must be built with real-time tracking capability and updates on parameters such as vaccine storage levels, temperature control, stock-outs, quantities of ancillary supplies (diluent, syringes and needles, glass vials, rubber stoppers, plungers, wicks and kerosene for refrigerators etc.). This becomes imperative in calculating the most important parameter, vaccine wastage rate – a key input to anticipate demand, plan manufacturing and supplies, and reducing stock-outs/over-stocks. At the scale of ~10 billion units, estimates of wastage at every stage of the supply chain and its accuracy can be the key in ensuring or denying access to the vaccine for large segments of population. Here again, blockchain will be critical.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/blockchain-role-in-distributing-covid-19-vaccine-could-make-history/