When will the COVID-19 vaccines be ready? And what will change because of that?

29 October 2020 - These 2 questions are probably among the most asked questions across the media platforms around the world.

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Although this article will not provide a direct answer to the question, it serves to provide you clarity on the current situation revolving around vaccine readiness and hospitality / tourism.

We have identified two vital determinants that contribute to the success of a vaccine immunisation programme – (1) development and (2) transportation. Development involves phases of clinical studies, stringent regulatory approval, and manufacturing while transportation includes vaccine allocation planning and cold chain management.

The development process that generally takes 5 to 10 years is expected to be shrunk down into 18 months in which the vaccines will be available to countries that are in the forefront pipeline of leading vaccine manufacturers by mid-2021.

Here are the few key points discussed:

• Leading vaccine manufacturers and their clinical-trial timelines

• Herd immunity and the need for it

• Required dose(s) per person

• Experts’ opinions on vaccine availability to the mass market

• Vaccine prices

Within the transportation aspect, we attempted to understand the ways in allocating the vaccines. To bring up the question, will it be a public / tiered approach, a private approach, or a mixture of both? We also helped to explain the importance, functions, and impact of vaccine cold chain management.

It was also important to address the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain for Malaysia by keeping up with how the Malaysian government is handling the obtainment of the vaccine.

At the same time, the surveys on Malaysians’ and global citizens’ sentiment towards vaccine availability and accessibility enabled us to comprehend the general overview of people's perception towards the COVID-19 vaccines while prompted us to identify ways to mitigate the situation.

On the topic of global hospitality / tourism, the top 20 countries with the highest tourist expenditures were outlined to emphasise the importance of reopening our inbound border with them. Based on the list, we connected the countries’ COVID-19 cases data with the likelihood for Malaysia to reopen border with them in 2021.

Talking about tourism, we definitely should not leave out what Malaysia is known for, healthcare tourism. We underline the amount of healthcare and non-healthcare tourism revenue that can be generated with a 1:3.1 ratio. As Indonesia represents 62% of Malaysia’s healthcare tourists, it is vital that Malaysia’s border status with Indonesia is reopened as soon as possible depending on the COVID-19 landscape.

In the effort to manage inbound tourists in the coming 2021, we have included 4 selected countries’ best practices on international border management measures against COVID-19 to help our business readers plan and position ahead of the imminent border reopening.

Nevertheless, Aleevar Consulting will be glad to support you with our service offerings especially marketing / customer research, capacity building, and strategy roadmap. For more information, feel free to contact us at info@aleevar.com.