Day 1

Italian manufacturer fills order for 1.5 million doses of a vaccine.

75,000 vials packed into 28 boxes with dry ice and then transported by refrigerated truck to Rome (2 hours) where it is loaded on a cargo plane for a 90 minute flight to Brussels.

Transferred to unrefrigerated airport warehouse. Next flight for West Africa departs in 8 hours.

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VACCINE PRODUCTION CYCLE
It takes between 18 and 24 months for manufacturers to grow the live cultures used in vaccines and 1 to 4 months more to test for quality. The amount manufactured is based on projections by aid agencies over several years. When a final order is placed, the vaccine production cycle has already started based those projections.