skhor1_THIBAULT SAVARYAFP via Getty Images_vaccine development Thibault Savary/AFP via Getty Images

Three Vaccine Assumptions for 2021

As COVID-19 vaccination programs scale up globally, they must be able to withstand reality. Policymakers need to incorporate three realistic assumptions into their immunization plans: delays are inevitable, inequality will increase, and vaccine procurement could be a proxy for geopolitics.

KUALA LUMPUR – Vaccinating the world against COVID-19 is one of mankind’s most critical non-wartime efforts ever. Many countries have developed ambitious, politically sensitive, and carefully sequenced vaccination plans, but executing them successfully will be a challenge. To succeed, policymakers should build three realistic assumptions into their vaccination planning for 2021 and beyond.

First, delays are inevitable. More than two months after the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine injection on December 8, 2020, hopes of a rapid rollout are fading in many countries. Production holdups have triggered European Union threats of legal action and export restrictions. And there are several reasons to expect further delays.

For starters, the manufacturing constraints are daunting. Firms must scale up or repurpose factories to produce billions of doses annually, and vaccine supply chains are still being built even as they are being stretched. For example, the Pfizer/BioNTech and CureVac vaccines use lipid nanoparticles manufactured by the same supplier.

https://prosyn.org/N1R6SMx