The Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV
C A S E S I N G L O B A L H E A L T H D ELIVERY GHD-045 JULY 2021 Building the Supply Chain for COVID-19 Vaccines Mid-April 2020 saw a rapid escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the four months after December 2019, when the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan, China, the virus had infected several million people globally, with more than a hundred thousand confirmed deaths (see Exhibit 1 for daily confirmed deaths by country). China and Italy experienced major outbreaks early and saw hospitals flooded with COVID-19 patients, causing major shortages of vital intensive-care materials. To forestall the overburdening of health care resources, more than a dozen major countries imposed strict lockdowns to slow the spread of the disease, or “flatten the curve” (see Exhibit 2 for a map of government responses). Government lockdowns disrupted supply and demand in vital industries including retail, tourism, manufacturing, and services, crippling the global economy. As the massive scale of the crisis became apparent, financial markets began to collapse during February, leading some experts to warn of a potential next Great Depression and governments to announce unprecedented rescue packages to contain the destructive economic impact of the crisis. As governments navigated trade-offs between economic and public health outcomes, a global race had begun for the rapid discovery, production, and distribution of a safe and effective vaccine. The organization of supply chains to manufacture, distribute, and administer a vaccine to a sufficient portion of the 7.6 billion world population to contain the disease, a concept termed “herd immunity,” posed significant challenges.
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