-The first doses of COVID-19 vaccine
are flowing out of factories and going into arms.
Now a scramble for things you may not think about,
like glass and ice, key parts in the so-called cold chain,
a kind of vaccine conveyer belt kept at precise temperatures,
stretching from plants to planes to the place of injection,
a chain that will eventually reach more
than 300 million Americans and the world.
And any kinks in this chain could slow everything down.
-There's always shortages.
You always under-forecast, over-forecast,
under-procure, over-procure.
This is the nature of supply chains.
-Just look at this picture and all that glass.
But it can't just be any glass.
The vaccine made by Pfizer has to be kept super cold.
Glass maker Corning has been make vials that won't shatter,
branding it Valor Glass.
It also doesn't flake or chip,
which could contaminate the vaccine with tiny pieces.
There's less friction.
You can see how these vials move much more smoothly.
-We're able to improve manufacturing productivity,
which in this, you know, kind of environment,
where every vial and every dose counts,
it really has a lot of benefits.
-Corning is getting some $200 million from the US government,
helping it expand manufacturing.
It's making glass in upstate New York, New Jersey,
and North Carolina,
right now enough for more than 100 million doses.
As 2020 ends -- -We will have increased
our capacity about 4x, and by the end of 2021,
we expect a 10x increase in our capacity.
Will it be enough?
Boy, we sure hope so, and we're doing everything
that we can to make sure that we are not the constraint
in getting this vaccine to the public.
-Once used, the glass vials are melted down, recycled.
You may also be looking at the future.
This type of glass will help preserve
the quality of what's coming,
a newer generation of vaccines that have to be kept stable.
Keeping this vaccine super cold
has also meant a scramble for special freezers,
not normally found in hospitals.
But the vaccine also has to travel,
and keeping it cold along the way -- dry ice.
It also helps preserve the vaccine at hospitals
and pharmacies that may not have those super cold freezers.
Dry ice is carbon dioxide in solid form.
It's widely made to preserve food,
to keep things cold in shipping.
With the vaccine now here,
the industry says it needs to produce 5% more.
-We looked at our systems, and we are confident
that there's capacity in the system today
to meet that 5% increase in dry ice.
-Dry ice is made around the time it's needed.
It's not something you make and store because it melts.
-We're not gonna run out of the CO2,
which makes the dry ice.
We will make sure there's enough of the vaccine.
You know, we're waiting to hear from those that need it.
-Getting vaccines to hospitals, to clinics, and into arms --
all of it part of a well-established path.
What's different this time is the volume and the urgency,
with cases on the rise.
As for that last step -- a needle and syringe --
one estimate says the US will need 850 million.
-Everybody's trying to ramp up, scale up, and pivot.
And it's gonna take time.
And it's gonna be very sloppy.
And it's not gonna be precise.
-There's also something else
that worries this supply-chain expert.
-I'm still not sure -- I'm still not --
In my gut, I'm not sure we have that command and control,
that intelligence in the network
to be able to really effectively allocate and distribute
to all the parts of the country
that we really need it to go to right now.