When the first doses of a COVID-19 from Pfizer and BioNTech were administered across the United States on Monday, it marked the beginning of a mass distribution effor that hinges on an unlikely product: dry ice.
Several thousand doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine were quarantined in California and Alabama after the US authorities encountered a transit anomaly that caused the storage temperature to get too cold. According to Gen. Gustave Perna, the one overseeing the logistics for Operation Warp Speed, the doses never left the truck, but they have to ensure that this anomaly is safe.
Sheldon H. Jacobson doesn’t mince words about the lack of a coordinated effort to collect reliable data about COVID. “Data collection has been a disaster during this pandemic,” says Jacobson, a Founder Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois and a leader at INFORMS, an association for operations research and analytics professionals. “For someone who uses data and analyzes data, it took me months to get info from the CDC.”
As delivery trucks rumble out of Pfizer’s Michigan plant with an escort from U.S. Marshals, they are also under the watchful eye of FedEx employees. Each box of vaccines is equipped with Bluetooth and GPS sensors to monitor their location and temperature. “I refer to them as guardian angels,” said Richard Smith, regional president of the Americas for the shipping giant. “They are using the technology to have eyes on every single one of them to be alerted to any potential failure.”
For the second instalment of our 2020–21 speaker series, we had the pleasure of joining Dr. Opher Baron, Professor of Operations Management, from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He shared his journey creating a Canadian marketplace for personal protective equipment (PPE) to help bridge the crucial supply chain gaps that swept across the country during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ashley Smith
Public Affairs Coordinator
INFORMS
Catonsville, MD
[email protected]
443-757-3578
An audio journey of how data and analytics save lives, save money and solve problems.
The genetic testing company 23andMe, which holds the genetic data of 15 million people, declared bankruptcy on Sunday night after years of financial struggles. This means that all of the extremely personal user data could be up for sale—and that vast trove of genetic data could draw interest from AI companies looking to train their data sets, experts say.
The Big Four firms are now integrating a new category of artificial intelligence (AI) into their businesses, according to Bloomberg Tax.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as the new secretary of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s de facto healthcare czar. He will have influence over numerous highly visible agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, among others. Given that healthcare is something that touches everyone’s life, his footprint of influence will be expansive.
Health insurance has become necessary, with large and unpredictable health care costs always looming before each of us. Unfortunately, the majority of people have experienced problems when using their health insurance to pay for their medical care. Health insurance serves as the buffer between patients and the medical care system, using population pooling to mitigate the risk exposure on any one individual.
In their March 2025 forecasts, shipping and logistics experts are warning those who rely on the industry to expect continued disruption, and in order to survive a chaotic landscape, they are advising businesses to spend money conservatively, work with trusted partners, and make comprehensive contingency plans.
After the Trump administration announced Monday an agreement to pause potential tariffs against Canadian imports, one supply chain expert told 12News the whiplash of tariff news coming out of Washington D.C. is not helpful to U.S. businesses.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban's question to Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, on energy costs took off on social media on Saturday.
Florida lawmakers have banned wind turbines off its shores and near the coast, saying the bill is meant to protect wildlife and prevent noise.