Rob Handfield Explains Rubber Shortage Slowing Vaccine Distribution

While President Biden has promised all adults will be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine by May, there are supply chain shortages that are standing in the way. Rob Handfield, professor of operations and supply chain management, says that the rubber stoppers for the vaccine vials have hit a wall in production due to tropical storms in Thailand, Vietnam and India.

“The D.P.A. is allowing the U.S. to hoard some of these materials for production of U.S. vaccines, but is causing other shortages globally,” said Handfield. “There is very little visibility into the manufacturing bottlenecks that are occurring.”

Read more on The New Yorker.

This post was originally published on Poole Thought Leadership here.