Macrocosm: How the COVID-19 Vaccine Could Destroy the Environment

dowell

Our environment has been deteriorating for decades. Despite persistent warnings from experts, we are not doing enough to combat the situation. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shutdowns have undeniably benefited the environment. Air pollution levels have decreased drastically as people remain locked at home and hesitant to travel. COVID may have served the environment well, but it also has the potential to accelerate its destruction.

The world is set to administer billions of COVID-19 vaccine doses within the next few years. For months, medical professionals, scientists, and journalists have tried to address every area of possible concern: vaccine safety, projected timelines, efficacy. Yet, they all continue to overlook a very important issue, the ecological impacts of mass vaccination. The COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing, distribution, and disposal plans currently in place all contain sources of potential environmental hazards.

Manufacturing

Vaccines consist of more than just a killed or weakened virus. If that were the case, they would be a lot easier to produce. Certain chemical compounds are used to promote the strength and stability of vaccines. At least 5 of the COVID-19 vaccine candidates currently in development are using Shark squalene as an adjuvant. Adjuvants are pharmacological agents used to stimulate a more powerful immune response, creating more effective vaccines. At first reading, this seems like a great thing especially as the world tries to fast-track the production process. Great for humans, not so great for sharks.

 Around 3,000 sharks are killed to produce a metric ton of squalene. That may not sound like much, a metric ton is equivalent to about 2.2 thousand pounds after all. However, in order to produce a single dose of a squalene adjuvanted vaccine for every person on earth, 250 thousand sharks have to die. If two doses of the vaccine are required, a very likely outcome, this number doubles.

Overfishing would drastically decrease the population size of many shark species, even dooming some to extinction. Sharks are apex predators so they reproduce in small numbers. Eliminating or weakening shark populations would devastate the ocean’s delicate ecosystem.

Distribution

Pfizer, one of the companies leading the COVID-19 vaccine race, projects their vaccine will be ready before the year is over.  The U.S. government has awarded the company $1.9 billion in exchange for 100 million doses of the potential vaccine and the contract includes the option to acquire an additional 500 million. If the vaccine is approved, Pfizer estimates they will manufacture 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021. 

The logistics behind storing, transporting, and distributing such a considerable volume of vaccines in a short period of time is incredibly complicated. The situation is made all more the difficult by the fact that the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at a temperature of about negative 112 degrees Fahrenheit at all times. Basically, a logistical nightmare. 

Delivery companies will be required to deploy thousands of freezer trucks to transport the vaccine safely and effectively. There is one problem with this, as it currently stands, refrigeration accounts for 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions that come from temperature-controlled transportation. This number is not trivial. An investigation from Auto Express found that in the UK alone, refrigerated vehicles account for the same amount of gas emissions as 1.8 million cars. Keep in mind that the UK makes up only 0.87% of the world population.

When not in transit, the millions of vaccine doses will need to be stored somewhere. UPS has already begun constructing a “freezer farm” in Kentucky. They have equipped a large warehouse with 70 Stirling Ultracold freezers and have plans to add more. Such a facility will inevitably consume a ton of energy. To their credit, the freezers are ENERGY STAR® certified, averaging only 0.29 kilowatthours (kWh) of energy per cubic foot a day, almost half the certification requirement of 0.55. When you do the math that comes out to about 1,140 kWh of energy daily for the 70 fridges. To put things into perspective, the average U.S. household uses 877 kWh of energy a month. Additional freezers would only cause the number to increase and another facility is being constructed the Netherlands. To keep the freezers running, fossil fuels will be burned to generate electricity releasing tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Disposal 

Millions of needles, syringes, alcohol pads, etcetera will be used to vaccinate the American people. Each state has their own regulations for medical waste disposal. Generally, it is treated with chemicals to render it non-infectious before it is dumped in a landfill or incinerated. The truth is none of these methods are sustainable.

If handled, stored, or disposed of improperly chemical disinfectants can release hazardous substances into the environment. Landfills, on the other hand, are already considered environmental hazards by many conservationists. When medical waste is incinerated it can release pollutants into the atmosphere. Items treated with chlorine generate carcinogens, substances that cause cancer, when exposed to the ragging inferno of an industrial furnace. While sharps waste, such as needles, deposits toxic metals into the environment when incinerated.

The packaging used to safely transport the vaccine to the medical facilities and pharmacies where it will eventually be injected is also a source of concern. Refrigerated medications are typically shipped in polystyrene boxes. Polystyrene cannot biodegrade and is very expensive to recycle. Most of it will most likely end up in landfills where it will stay forever. When polystyrene is exposed to heat, like sunlight, it releases toxic air pollutants.

Pfizer, remember them, has designed a box to store and ship their prospective vaccine which utilizes the extremely low temperature of dry ice. This could potentially eliminate the need for polystyrene, in a sense. The dry ice that keeps the boxes cold (about 51 pounds per box) needs to be replenished every five days. Considering each boxes can house only 5,000 doses, it looks like we’re going to be needing a lot of dry ice. Dry ice, ironically enough, is stored and transported in polystyrene containers.  

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The COVID-19 vaccine will most certainly do tons of good. Preventing millions of deaths and allowing us to finally give up our ‘new normal’. If we aren’t careful, it could also cause irreparable damage to our already fragile environment. Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years and it has witnessed a lot. It seems unrealistic that that our species would be the one to finally destroy it. However, if this pandemic has taught anything, it is the importance of planning ahead, especially for the most unimaginable of situations.