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KATHMANDU, APRIL 21
COVID-19 vaccines are being developed and approved for use around the world. It is an effort of historic proportions, but viable vaccines are only the first step toward taming the virus.
Enormous quantities of the vaccines will need to be produced and delivered. The vaccines approved already in some jurisdictions, and many of the candidates likely to be approved going forward, are injectable products that need to be kept cold.
One of the first vaccines that has already received approval in Canada and the United Kingdom must be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 Fahrenheit), for example.
The vaccines will need to get to people in places that lack proper transport infrastructure and where basic refrigeration may be hard to find. Stockpiles of vaccine-related goods need to be built - things like syringes, glass vials, refrigerated containers to move and store the vaccine, and the list goes on.
The difficulty in getting these items where they need to go is compounded by the ongoing global economic uncertainty.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 21, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
