Will consumers one day have a choice of which coronavirus vaccine they receive? Will the market for vaccines be overly complicated once other players join Moderna (MRNA 0.89%) and Pfizer (PFE -0.19%) in earning Emergency Use Authorization or formal approvals? Dr. Bruce Gellin of the Sabin Vaccine Institute joined Olivia Zitkus and Corinne Cardina of Fool.com's Healthcare and Cannabis Bureau on a Dec. 18 episode of Fool Live to talk about the challenges of vaccination logistics and the importance of information technology.
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Olivia Zitkus: Turning from that, the vaccine race, to the vaccination challenge. What other issues do you see? Maybe either than cold chain two-dose schedule? Do you see any potential confusion if two similar vaccines are in the market?
Dr. Bruce Gellin: I think in the near-term, I think that at least in the United States, the way that work speed is managing this, and supplies are limited I don't think there'll be multiple products in the same marketplaces. So I think if the opportunity for confusion will be less because they will be placing vaccines in certain places, if you're customer, I'm not sure you're going to be so excited about that. You may not be able to choose. You take what's there. As the situation changes and as supply is increased, then there'll be many different products. I think that will be confusing and important to sort out which are the right vaccines for the right people at the right time. We deal with that a little bit with influenza. Fifteen, 20 years ago, we had just a few products now we have many, which is good for public health and good for individual health, but makes it complicated from a market standpoint, it's hard for people to know exactly how to keep the right inventory of who their patients are and the like. But yes it will be confusing, and keeping the communications clear is going to be important. Hopefully, some of the information technology will help us with this. Some things have been created for this and we'll have to see how well they work. But I'm trying to get people back from the second dose to make sure they get the correct second dose, and not just anything that's out there is going to be key as well.
