How the massive plan to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine could make history – and leverage blockchain like never before

How the massive plan to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine could make history – and leverage blockchain like never before

Distributing the COVID-19 vaccine will require one of the largest supply chain capacities for fighting pandemics ever built.

Eradicating COVID-19 around the world could require distributing between 7 to 19 billion vaccine doses - and blockchain is integral to making it equitable.

Blockchain will be essential to equitable, efficient distribution and be leveraged at a scale never seen before.



Finding a coronavirus vaccine is key, but finding a way to distribute it on a global scale will be equally crucial. This effort will take building a manufacturing and supply chain capacity larger than ever before, more quickly than ever for vaccine distribution. That success also requires leveraging tools and capabilities - such as blockchain - in a way never seen before in the history of fighting pandemics.

Scale and the challenge ahead

Decades of running immunization programs by UNICEF and Gavi Alliance tell us that vaccine supply chain and delivery takes years to stabilize depending on the geography. For instance, polio immunizations in India took more than a decade to cover 100% of the population's children - 175 million under age five. The Pulse Polio immunization program was launched in 1995 with the last case reported in 2011.

Additionally, UNICEF, world's largest vaccine