News Room

While the development of a COVID-19 vaccine could generate billions of dollars for some pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, concerns over accusations of exploiting the pandemic will likely temper profits, experts suggest. "It doesn't really make sense to profit from this pandemic," said Tinglong Dai, associate professor of operations management and business analytics at Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School in Baltimore.

New restrictions imposed on restaurants and other businesses this week by Gov. Steve Sisolak to curb the spread of COVID-19 raise a question: What’s the science behind them? The science is imperfect, broad in stroke and balanced by policy and political considerations, health authorities said. “The basic idea is we are trying to reduce the density of people in any environment,” said epidemiologist Brian Labus, a member of the governor’s medical advisory team on COVID-19.

Delivering an effective vaccine is only part of the equation. The region's recovery from COVID-19 also will hinge on Long Islanders' willingness to take the shot, experts say. The public's appetite for inoculations will be a wild card, said Julie Swann, an expert in health care supply chains who advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the H1N1 outbreak in 2009.

Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine candidate, announced earlier this month, comes with a major complication that could delay its distribution in rural areas and developing countries: It must be stored at the ultra-cold temperature of -70°C. That means the vaccine must be kept in specialized freezers that cost as much as $20,000 each and are rare outside of medical research facilities.

In Kalamazoo, Michigan, millions of vials of a covid-19 vaccine may soon be rolling off production lines. There are still many hurdles to leap before that vaccine – the candidate from US drug company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech – or any other is approved and distributed, but governments, manufacturers and shipping firms around the world have already spent months preparing for what happens next.