Backed by the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, experts from the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh are joining forces with non-profit, commercial and academic partners to begin investigating the scale of challenge involved in distributing a potentially temperature-sensitive COVID-19 vaccine.
Scientists are launching a major new research project in India that will help to engineer an efficient and sustainable delivery mechanism – ready to get an eventual COVID-19 vaccine to billions of people around the globe
Researchers racing to develop, test and manufacture an effective coronavirus vaccine will also need to distribute the drug globally, but universal vaccine access is already a major challenge, particularly in low-income countries across the global south – partly due to the lack of robust cold-chains.
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations estimates that only 10 per cent of health care facilities in the world’s poorest countries have a reliable electricity supply; while in some countries, less than five per cent of health centres have vaccine-qualified refrigerators.
Backed by the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, experts from the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh are joining forces with non-profit, commercial and academic partners to begin investigating the scale of challenge involved in distributing a potentially temperature-sensitive COVID-19 vaccine.
Toby Peters, Professor – Cold Economy, University of Birmingham, commented, “Universal vaccine access is already a major challenge. With COVID-19, rapid mass immunisation will probably be required; maintaining a continuous cold chain to rapidly transport and deliver COVID-19 vaccines to all communities, many where electricity supply and cooling infrastructure is often non-existent or unreliable, will be a daunting task.
“Given most of the technologies deployed today will still be in operation in the next decade, the emergence of sustainable and off-grid cold-chain devices allows us the opportunity to create sustainable solutions for COVID-19 vaccine deployment that also can deliver resilient and sustainable health cold-chain systems as a lasting legacy.”
Shubhashis Dey, Associate Director, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, commented, “COVID-19 related mass immunisation requirements offer us an opportunity to not only increase our vaccine production, but also create a robust logistics cold chain system that can handle the country’s overall vaccine needs. The vaccination programme will require millions of citizens of all age group to be vaccinated within a short span of time. Our effort is designed to help India overcome this massive logistic challenge sustainably and create a model of global adoption.”
Research in India led by the Centre for Environment Education, and supported by commercial partners such as Zanotti (a part of the Daikin Group), Sure Chill and Nexleaf Analytics, will begin addressing on the group research to address a number of questions that will be key to solving the cold-chain conundrum, including:
Does any country have the infrastructure, resources and planning capability to meet the demand of COVID-19 immunisation, while still meeting current vaccine needs?
If not, what infrastructure and training do we need in place?
What are the short- and long-term infrastructure financing requirements to create such an efficient vaccine delivery system?
Can we achieve this sustainably – economically, socially and environmentally?
Clean cold experts from the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University are already working with Indian counterparts Centre for Environment Education and MP Ensystems to explore how integrated ‘community cooling hubs’ can integrate food cold chains with other cold-dependent services such as community health facilities, social facilities and even emergency services.
Professor Phil Greening, Centre for Sustainable Road Freight, Heriot-Watt University, commented, “We may have 12-18 months to engineer a robust, efficient distribution system to ensure any vaccine for COVID-19 can reach the world’s population, whether they are in urban or remote rural areas.
“A radical approach like community cooling hubs could help meet the different communities’ cooling ...
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