Drones are now being used to deliver Covid-19 vaccines

Drones play a vital role in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic: delivering vaccines to the communities most in need.

While the majority of vaccine-based news coverage has spoken only of its rarity in many countries due to production levels or price points, there is little debate. has happened about the real supply challenges for the physical delivery of vaccines.

Zipline, a drone delivery service, personally addresses this problem by using the knowledge and innovative technology to help deliver Covid-19 coronavirus vaccines to remote areas. Late last month, Gavi, an international organization that aims to raise vaccine equality around the world, announced that Zipline has partnered with the Government of Ghana to help deliver the COVAX vaccines much expected (COVAX is a global initiative supported by the World Health Organization that “Works for equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines”).

The report describes how Zipline, in partnership with UPS which provides emergency transport of the vaccines, has used the autonomous medical delivery drones and “nests” in it. the strategy (which is the bases for launching and landing the drones) to help circulate vaccines across the country.

The author of the article Maya Prabhu describes, “When the drones reach their destination – whether it is a health facility or a remote vaccination center – rather than landing, they will instead of lowering the height to release the payload from the air. This then parachutes to the ground, landing safely and correctly in a lying area about three meters wide. ”

Zipline has played a key role in Ghana’s health infrastructure, especially as it has provided much-needed support for Covid-19 testing in rural areas at the height of the pandemic.

The video below highlights the work of Zipline in Rwanda, where it also helped with emergency healthcare outreach campaigns.

This is not the first time drones have been considered for medical reasons. Late last fall, I wrote about drug giant Merck’s partnership with drone technology company Volansi, aiming to create an efficient way to deliver conventional medicines from manufacturing facilities to end users.

The reason for increased interest in using this technology is relatively simple. The idea of ​​using drones to deliver medicines and vaccines paints a promising picture in tackling rural health inequalities, as well as potential cost savings. As noted in a previous Forbes article by Bruce Y. Lee, advanced simulation models have emerged: “under a reasonably wide range, drones can offer cost savings (ranging from 20% to 50%) over the use of traditional land-based transport to move vaccines to health facilities, and these savings are largely dependent on the size of the population served by the limited radius of the drones, the location of roads for land transport, and the speed of transport pretty much. “

Of course, the most important caveat with all these aspects is that the technological challenges are fully solved. Circulation of vaccines has never been an easy challenge in terms of supply, as vaccines are very sensitive to temperature changes, often delicate, and may require extensive infrastructure and trained professionals to administer it. patients. The storage and circulation of Covid-19 vaccines is particularly difficult, as some require ultra-cold storage and other specific dispersion parameters.

However, if the common technological challenges, regulatory barriers, and implementation problems can be resolved in a way that does not compromise patient safety, there may be a promising future in the introduction of technology. drone in healthcare delivery infrastructure.