Sandia National Laboratories’ Global Chemical and Biological Security program (SNL/GCBS) has an on-going mission to enhance laboratory biosafety and biosecurity. SNL/GCBS has developed robust biosafety and biosecurity risk assessment methodologies and tools to aid laboratories seeking to implement biosecurity as advocated in the recently released World Health Organization’s “Biorisk Management: Laboratory Biosecurity Guidance.” BioRAM Security (BioRAM) is one of these tools. This tool was designed to complement the “Laboratory Biosecurity Handbook” written by Ren Salerno and Jennifer Gaudioso (Salerno, 2007). BioRAM was originally developed under the Sandia National Laboratories Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) process and has been updated with support from the US Department of Health Centers for Disease Control Select Agent Program, the US Department of State Biosecurity Engagement Program, and by funding from Sandia National Laboratories’ Associated Laboratories Directors.
Producing and distributing COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic is a major logistical challenge requiring careful planning and efficient execution. This report presents information on logistical, policy and technical issues relevant to rapidly fielding a COVID-19 vaccination program. For this study we (a) conducted literature review and subject matter expert elicitation to understand current vaccine manufacturing and distribution capabilities and vaccine allocation strategies, (b) designed a baseline vaccine distribution strategy and modeling strategy to provide insight into the potential for targeted distribution of limited initial vaccine supplies, and (c) developed parametric interfaces to enable vaccine distribution scenarios to be analyzed in depth with Sandias Adaptive Recovery Model that will allow us evaluate the additional sub- populations and alternative distribution scenarios from a public health benefit and associated economic disruption Principal issues, challenges, and complexities that complicate COVID-19 vaccine delivery identified in our literature and subject matter expert investigation include these items: The United States has not mounted an urgent nationwide vaccination campaign in recent history. The existing global manufacturing and distribution infrastructure are not able to produce enough vaccine for the population immediately. Vaccines, once available will be scarce resources. Prioritization for vaccine allocation will be built on existing distribution networks. Vaccine distribution may not have a universal impact on disease transmission and morbidity because of scarcity, priority population demographics, and underlying disease transmission rates. Considerations for designing a vaccine distribution strategy are discussed. A baseline distribution strategy is designed and tested using the Adaptive Recovery Model, which couples a deterministic compartmental epidemiological model and a stochastic network model. We show the impact of this vaccine distribution strategy on hospitalizations, mortality, and contact tracing requirements. This model can be used to quantitatively evaluate alternative distribution scenarios, guiding policy decisions as vaccine candidates are narrowed down.
For the purposes of this paper, a Biocontainment facility is a laboratory, production facility, or similar building that handles contagious biological materials in a safe and responsible manner. This specialized facility, also called a containment facility or a high containment facility reduces the potential for biological agents to be released into the environment, provides a safe work environment for the employees, and supports good laboratory practices.