Former military Covid planner warns of nightmare of distributing vaccine in rural America

A former US Army Covid-19 planner has warned that the development of a safe and effective vaccine is only the start because the challenge of distributing it will be enormous.

“The incoming administration will inherit one of the most daunting challenges any president has ever faced: planning and executing a national mass-vaccination campaign in the middle of a global pandemic,” writes Kris Alexander, formerly of US Northern Command, in The Daily Beast.

He notes that the biggest problems logistically are that many parts of the country are already chronically underserved from a medical standpoint and the vaccine will need to be transported over enormous distances at low temperatures.

Giving his home state of Texas as an example, Mr Alexander notes that 235 out of Texas’ 254 counties are medically underserved according to the Department of State Health Services — some have little to no access to healthcare and even lack a doctor.