WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today participated in a subcommittee hearing entitled “The Logistics of Transporting a COVID-19 Vaccine.” The hearing focused on supply chain issues within the transportation network and ongoing coordination in preparation to distribute the vaccine, as well as the near and long-term outlooks for vaccine distribution.

HIGHLIGHTS: 

TRACKING VACCINATIONS AND DOSING: “Particularly in rural America, how do you track who’s gotten the first [vaccination]? How do you retrack if you don’t have connectivity for certain areas? Who has responsibility of that? Do you as the chief medical officer? Does Pfizer have that responsibility? Where does that responsibility lie and where’s the recheck going to be on this because my understanding is that the second dose is critical.”

PRIVATE COURIERS TRANSPORTING VACCINE: “My understanding is that last house deliveries from UPS or from FedEx may be from the U.S. Postal Service. Would the vaccine fall into this? The fewer hands between the vaccine and the person who receives the vaccine obviously eliminates room for error there.”

WHOLE STREAM OF LOGESTICS: “Obviously getting a vaccine you need swabs, injection devices. Are you in contact with those manufactures too? Are you a part of that whole stream of logistics that are going to be important to delivering this vaccine?”  

 

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