Quoted from Oaken:As a fun example of supply chain hiccups, if we had a vaccine ready to go today, we still couldn’t distribute it because there is a shortage of glass bottles right now. Can’t just put it in a mason jar. Takes a special kind of river sand and there isn’t enough of it in the supply chain right now to make the shit ton of bottles needed.
Also, there is to a lesser degree a supply chain bottleneck on the membranes and plastic caps that go on the bottles.
My worry is that the shortages will still exist when the vaccine is ready to go and so they will pull vials from other medicine supply chain (vaccines, Insulin, etc) which will then create ANOTHER problem.
Your points are all valid. I don't know if there is a precedent for trying to build up a supply of 320M vaccinations which is what is being done as they risk-start manufacturing hoping for successful test outcome. Storage, refrigeration if needed, distribution all become new challenges. Also, back-of-the envelope calculation shows that if we open up 100 distribution sites in all 50 states it will still take 4 1/2 months of around-the-clock distribution*. I had originally assumed they would use pneumatic injection (much faster) like I remember from 40+ years ago, but I haven't heard that mentioned anywhere.
* Technically, I think we only need 50-60% of the population vaccinated for "herd immunity".
New York, NY
Ottawa, ON
