The CDC's Oct. 16 deadline for states to submit their COVID-19 vaccine distribution plans is rapidly approaching, but states are still struggling to address the significant uncertainties and logistical challenges surrounding mass COVID-19 inoculation in the U.S., according to Bloomberg Law.
Here are six key obstacles states are struggling to overcome as they prepare their plans:
- Determining who is eligible to receive the first doses.
- Assuring masses of increasingly apprehensive citizens that the shots are safe.
- Transporting vaccines from drugmakers to healthcare facilities.
- Combining the federal government's top-down guidance with a mostly bottom-up delivery system.
- Storing Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine, which must be kept at -94 degrees.
- Tracking who received the vaccine, as well as when and where, as most of the vaccine candidates require two doses weeks apart.