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When Covid-19 vaccines receive approval from health authorities, they will need to be moved from where they’re produced to where they will be administered to recipients. Considering that most vaccines need to be refrigerated during storage and transport, it is expected that heavy demands will be made of all aspects of the cold chain. Two of the leading vaccine candidates — from Pfizer and Moderna — have to be kept well below freezing, which requires specialized equipment and handling practices. The Pfizer vaccine, for example, has to be stored below -70 Celsius, meaning it has to be packed in dry ice.

While COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, has brought much of the world to a standstill, it hasn’t stopped research at NC State. Faculty and the staff at the university have pivoted from their customary research to study COVID-19, using their expertise in battling the pandemic. Their research has covered a large scope, from how the novel coronavirus can be effectively managed and analyzed to how it affects society’s food safety and supply chains.

The United States could be the first country to launch one of the most ambitious vaccine operations in history: distributing and administering up to 600 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine in just a few months. Massive vaccine campaigns are nothing new -- they have been carried out for decades in the fight against the measles and flu, for example. 

Yuri Levin, professor of Queen’s University Smith School of Business specializing in business analytics and artificial intelligence, takes up the position of Dean of Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO.

Julie Swann, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at North Carolina State University, who advised the CDC during the H1N1 response, said she believes North Carolina will have all of the necessary logistics in place for mass distribution of a coronavirus vaccine as soon as one if approved.