Vaccine Supply Chain Management: Implications for Reforming Supply Chain Policy and Practice in Pandemic Times

Abstract

Vaccination is one of the most powerful weapons to prevent and control the outbreak of pandemics. The adoption of a supply chain, anchored on the proponents of the network theory and practice posits with a potential to deliver scale and speed in vaccination effort during pandemics but it’s not holistically explored. Based on a literature review, this study proposes the adoption of a holistic approach that involves private actor partnerships and involvement to improve scale and speed of vaccination during pandemic times. The study has also revealed that social actors like religious and community leaders need to be involved in order to support communication that is necessary for reducing misinformation and development of trust for citizens to go ahead and vaccinate. The outcome of the study is important since it provides for an extended framework for vaccine supply chains while providing ways to manage misinformation that tends to fail immunization effort during pandemics. Keywords: COVID-19, Vaccine, Supply Chain, Network Theory, Vaccine Hesitancy, Herd Immunity