From manufacturing billions of doses to storage and shipment, there are many challenges ahead after Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine showed promising results this week.
The BBC’s Tulip Mazumdar explained some of the issues that will now need to be overcome.
The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at extremely low temperatures, making distribution tricky.
“Getting successful products into communities is an epic logistical task, keeping vaccines deep frozen on a colossal scale will be one of the key challenges,” she explained.
The unprecedented demand for a Covid-19 vaccine has seen world health authorities devise a new system called Covax.
“Covax aims to ensure anyone in the world who needs a vaccine most can get access to it first,” Mazumdar says.
“It wants to procure two billion doses to protect one billion people in the next year.”
This would start with health workers then over 65s would be prioritised.
New Zealand has a deal for 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine which would immunise 750,000 people.
However, questions still remain as to how long immunity will last and trials are still ongoing.
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