RESPONDING TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
An Evidence-Based Strategy to Scale Vaccination in Canada Anne W. Snowdon, Alexandra Wright and Michael Saunders
Abstract Provincial health systems have been challenged by the surge in healthcare demands caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; the COVID-19 vaccine rollout across the country has further added to these challenges. A successful vaccination campaign is widely viewed as the only way to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, placing greater urgency on the need for a rapid vaccination strategy. In this paper, we present emerging findings, from a national research study, that document the key challenges faced by current vaccine rollout strategies, which include procurement and leadership strategies, citizen engagement and limitations in supply chain capacity. These findings are used to inform a scalable vaccine strategy comprising collaborative leadership, mobilization of an integrated workforce and a digitally enabled supply chain strategy. The goal of vaccinating the entire Canadian population in the next few months can be achieved when supported by such a strategy.
Introduction
Global health systems are struggling to meet the demands of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic while attempting to implement a mass vaccination strategy rapidly enough to slow the spread of infection across populations. COVID-19 cases continue to surge well beyond the rates evident in the
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first wave of the pandemic. Given the lack of effective antiviral medications to treat COVID-19, vaccination is widely viewed as the most effective strategy to control the COVID-19 pandemic (ECDC 2020). However, despite the promise of these rapidly emerging vaccines, almost every country is facing challenges in mobilizing the capacity needed for rapid implementation of vaccination at the population level. Early efforts have focused on the procurement of vaccines in anticipation of vaccine approval by each country. However, the procurement of vaccines and the logistics of distribution during a pandemic are only the first steps in achieving a scalable vaccination strategy. The much more challenging phase is scaling vaccination capacity quickly enough to vaccinate an entire population. What is centrally important for all the countries is prioritizing vaccination scalability as a strategy to overcome the devastation of this pandemic – “vaccines do not save lives, vaccinations save lives” (Orenstein 2019). The purpose of this paper is to report on the emerging findings of case study research on the impact of COVID-19 and the capacity of the health system to respond to this pandemic in the seven Canadian provinces. The emerging findings have identified the critical associations among leadership strategy, supply chain capacity and effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research, supported by a