Last-mile delivery is a logistic solution and the final step of a product's supply chain and delivery process to the end customers. It is this final step that determines if the product reaches the customer on time and safely. Recently, a new product had to make its way through this process – Covid-19 vaccines. Never in history has there been such urgency to get out billions of vaccine doses - safely and on time - to every part of the world. In the case of a Covid-19 vaccine dose, its last-mile delivery ends when it is injected into a recipient. Here’s a look at the challenges the vaccines had to overcome to get to their recipients.
The challenges of last-mile delivery
Over less than six months, the world was able to administer over a billion Covid-19 doses – but that was not easy. Getting the vaccines to the customers proved to be highly challenging for logistic companies, governments, and health organizations worldwide.
1. Vaccine spoilage: Vaccines have a shelf life, and they have to reach their recipients on time. Getting the vaccine to remote areas on time proved to be a big challenge.
2. Cold chain: Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines must be kept at low temperatures right up to the time they are administered to protect them from environmental factors and human enzymes that could damage the mRNAs.
3. Lack of cold storage infrastructure: Many countries lacked sufficient cold distribution infrastructure to hold masses of vaccines. According to a Financial Times article, two-thirds of the world was unlikely to have easy access to the Covid-19 vaccine. That is because of the lack of cold storage facilities in even the most sophisticated hospitals in the United States.
4. Fragmented communication: The Covid-19 vaccine drive was a first of its kind on such a significant scale. With heterogeneous last-mile delivery systems, there were communication gaps, confusion, and panic.
5. Vaccination sites: To avoid long queues, states and cities had to locate ideal venues to vaccinate the masses. These had to be large areas of open space.
6. Regulations and privacy: Every state is governed by regulatory and privacy laws, and logistic companies had to contend with the different variants of those laws.
7. Vaccine skepticism: A significant part of the population was against getting vaccinated, and they had to be educated about the vaccine's benefits.
Overcoming the challenges of last-mile delivery
The last mile of a long and demanding journey is extraordinarily critical and the hardest. Getting the vaccines out was one problem, but getting people to take the vaccines was equally difficult. Solving these problems would not have been possible without the help of:
- Governments
- Private Companies
- Healthcare institutions
- Volunteers.
Here are some significant measures that have been taken to ensure last-mile delivery:
For countries and organizations without the required cold storage capabilities to meet the massive covid-19 demand, companies and governments invested billions of dollars in building these facilities from scratch.
Logistics solutions provided a range of connected, temperature-controlled packaging systems with real-time tracking. They could hold the vaccines at stable temperatures as they traveled across thousands of miles to their destinations.
Here is an exciting story of how vaccines traveled from Copenhagen to Lilongwe and beyond.
Governments held vaccine education campaigns in rural areas and pockets of communities that were against the use of the vaccine to build trust and share accurate information.
Social media campaigns like Facebook ad campaigns helped people get access to information about the vaccines.
Radio shows worked with community leaders to raise awareness of the vaccines.
Voluntary organizations work with governments to support vaccine rollout in hard-to-reach areas and populations.
Federal/central governments work with state governments to educate the masses.
In countries lacking storage facilities, voluntary organizations collaborated with governments to set up vaccination stations and centers.
Technology ensured transparent, secure, and reliable vaccine delivery.
End-to-end systems were created to anticipate problems (for example, a vaccine freezer breaking down on the road). The systems also provide real-time updates (for example, if a hospital is waiting for a consignment of vaccines, they should receive automatic updates on the estimated arrival time).
Across the world, leaders, governments, national planning committees, private organizations, and volunteers collaborated for transparency and accountability. That helped ensure vaccines were made available to people who needed them.
Conclusion
There have been hiccups along the way – problems that were or were not anticipated. But we have learned from these problems and have learned to work around them or overcome them. Over time, the world has been able to ensure faster, quicker, and more efficient Covid-19 vaccine delivery to the most remote corners of the world.
About No Place Like HomeCare
No Place Like HomeCare is a leading caregiver and home health nurse Seminole referral agency that provides home health care services and senior assistance in Florida.
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