-Developing a covid-19 vaccine --
a race happening in record time.
The first two shown to be 95% effective
in preventing the virus.
Another, by AstraZeneca, up to 90% effective.
And there will be others.
Now a different race.
And maybe the biggest challenge of all --
-To actually get this vaccine from the refrigerator into arms
so that it will actually prevent disease
and reduce the impact of this very nasty virus
that's moving rather unrestrained at the moment
through our population.
-The vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna must be kept cold.
Pfizer, super cold, at -94 degrees Fahrenheit,
stored in a freezer farm like this.
Moderna, less chilly at -4,
around the temperatures of other vaccines.
AstraZeneca's could be stored in regular refrigerators.
All this affects how they travel, how people get shots.
The thing about Pfizer's vaccine -- -It's really cold.
That's beyond what we have in our home freezers,
and, really, it's beyond what we have in most doctors' offices
and other healthcare environments.
-So Pfizer has made this crate to keep the vaccine
vials cold during shipping.
It will take millions of glass vials and heaps of dry ice.
The vaccine logistics business is complex.
It's cargo at the right doses
at the right temperatures from ground to air.
Delivery companies helping get the vaccine out.
The military, lending a hand with distribution.
States will figure out where it goes and who gets it first.
Medical professionals will do the injections,
all of it taking planning and timing on a massive scale.
-A smash program like this, trying to very quickly vaccinate
an entire country's population and beyond that -- the world --
nothing of this magnitude has been attempted before.
-Julie Swann studies the healthcare supply chain
and was on loan to the CDC during the H1N1 pandemic.
-There are lots of moving parts in this system.
Now, one good thing is that we distributed a lot of vaccine
for the H1N1 pandemic response --
over 100 million doses across thousands of providers.
-But now?
-We need millions and millions of doses.
Perhaps 500 million
before the end of this distribution campaign.
-Getting it first -- healthcare workers
and other groups at risk.
Given their job or condition, some 20 million Americans.
But even here, there may be complications.
-Some people, let's be straightforward,
will get sore arms from this vaccine.
And some will not feel so well the next day,
may even have a degree of fever,
have some headaches and aches and pains.
And so they may take some time off just until they feel better
and can go back to work.
So, you can't vaccinate everybody --
all your healthcare workers -- on the same day.
-It takes two shots for these first vaccines to be effective.
Those shots separated by weeks.
-We'll have to make sure people get the same vaccine
they started with.
You can't mix and match.
So all of that requires really meticulous record
keeping and organization.
-It's a sprawling nation,
and covering those so-called last miles,
getting a super-cold vaccine to smaller hospitals
in remote places.
-This will all take a considerable period of time,
over months, trying to vaccinate,
after all, 330 million people that live in the United States.
You can't do that in a week and a half.
-There's also something else to overcome -- skepticism.
-This is particularly true in the African-American
and Hispanic and other ethnic communities,
where the surveys clearly indicate that skepticism
is really deeply embedded, and that's a paradox and sad,
because those are the populations
disproportionately affected by covid.
-If the supply chain has gaps and the vaccine is not
where people want it to be or if they can't find it,
then that could also contribute to the vaccine hesitancy.
-The vaccine will go out in stages,
with most of the adult population
probably not getting shots until deep into 2021.
The protection everyone is looking for,
well, it won't be immediate.
The doctor says people -- -Can't throw away their masks
or be blind about social distancing
and go back to large group gatherings
until this whole program has gained a lot of steam,
down the road.