The scientific community has never gone from genomic sequencing to vaccine approval as fast as it has with Covid-19. Now, the challenge health care leaders face is to acquire the vaccines and roll out comprehensive vaccination programmes that lead to herd immunity. Fortunately, we can learn from past vaccination experiences and current expertise to proactively plan for the biggest hurdles to achieving that goal.

How to use this guide

We created this guide in collaboration with health system executives and internal experts to help leaders pressure-test the comprehensiveness of their vaccination planning efforts. The document describes the 10 biggest hurdles—which cover regional coordination, resource constraints, and public willingness to receive vaccinations—that experts foresee making vaccine rollouts more challenging. For each hurdle, we include a set of questions that leaders are likely to miss, which can be used to engage vaccine planning taskforces, partners, and other executives in identifying potential gaps in strategy.

What this guide does not include

This document focuses on ‘on-the-ground’ logistical and delivery hurdles that have a high likelihood of occurring regardless of vaccine supply or approvals. It does not include potential drug-related hurdles pertaining to vaccine efficacy, child safety, complication rates, post-vaccination transmission rates, natural immunity longevity, or other vaccine-specific factors.

Download the guide