Covid Vaccines and Global Cooperation

 It is easy to sit back on the sidelines and ask why it is taking so long for the world to come up with the Covid-19 vaccine, but this task is bigger than one can imagine. There are many obstacles, globally and locally, that we need to overcome in order to effectively produce and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine. One way that producing and delivering the Covid-19 vaccine is a global endeavor is the question of who gets it first. Sure, we would like to think that the vaccine will be made by the billions, enough for everyone to get one, but that is unfortunately not the case. Countries are going to have to assess and decide who is at the most risk and who could wait a few months or even years to be able to have the vaccine. Additionally, there are many vaccine trials going on all over the world. I have heard of at least 3 happening here in the United States, so another issue that has to be tackled is which vaccine that is currently in the trial will be deemed the "best" and which company/country will have to take on the responsibility of having the world's first Covid-19 vaccine ready for mass production and distribution. Besides the obvious players, there are many important roles that would have to be filled in order to make this distribution possible. For example, transporting the vaccine across the globe would require various types of transportation methods such as boats and planes, both of which would require certain environmental conditions to host the vaccines. As stated in the New York Times article titled How To Ship a Vaccine at -80 degrees C, and Other Obstacles in the Covid Fight, most vaccines would have to be kept at extremely low temperatures, a huge task to do for millions and millions of vials on boats, planes, trucks, etc. Besides environmental conditions that would have to be met, the race for the world's first coronavirus vaccine has become a competition of fame and money. Whichever country is the first to create a vaccine will receive huge compensation as well as have the stigma of being the "smartest". This competition can lead countries to lose sight of what is actually important: finding a vaccine to help the public. Lastly, being able to produce millions of vials is not easy, and it certainly won't take as fast as the world wants it to be. The logistics of how to produce 300+ million vials of this vaccine means that it could take months, or even years, to be able to produce enough vaccines to be globally ready. The world is already running tight on PPE and basic medical supplies, so manufacturing hundreds of millions of vials of this vaccine during an already strained healthcare system is going to be a huge obstacle.