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Estimating & comparing greenhouse gas emissions for existing intramuscular COVID-19 vaccines and a novel thermostable oral vaccine

BACKGROUND: Climate impacts are rarely considered in health impact and economic assessments of public health programs. This study estimates the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions averted by a novel oral SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccine compared with four existing intramuscular vaccines: AstraZeneca's...

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Autores principales: Patenaude, Bryan, Ballreich, Jeromie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8894686/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35262040
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2022.100127
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author Patenaude, Bryan
Ballreich, Jeromie
author_facet Patenaude, Bryan
Ballreich, Jeromie
author_sort Patenaude, Bryan
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Climate impacts are rarely considered in health impact and economic assessments of public health programs. This study estimates the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions averted by a novel oral SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccine compared with four existing intramuscular vaccines: AstraZeneca's COVISHIELD®, Pfizer/BioNTech's COMIRNATY®, Moderna's mRNA-1273, and Johnson & Johnson's Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccine. METHODS: We estimated GHG emissions averted for five vaccine modalities across nine countries. GHG emissions averted were derived from differences in cold chain logistics, production of vaccine supplies, and medical waste disposal. Countryspecific data including population coverage and electricity production mix were included in GHG emissions calculations. Results are presented in averted GHG per vaccine course and country level based on modeled vaccination demand. FINDINGS: Per course, an oral vaccine is estimated to avert between 0.007 and 0.024 kgCO(2)e compared with Johnson & Johnson, 0.013 to 0.048 kgCO(2)e compared with AstraZeneca, 0.23 to 0.108 kgCO(2)e compared with Moderna, and 0.134 to 0.466 kgCO(2)e compared with Pfizer/BioNTech. The total GHG averted varied across countries based upon predicted demand, mix of electrical production, and vaccination strategy with the largest emissions reductions projected for India and the United States. INTERPRETATION: Our results demonstrate large potential GHG emissions reductions from the use of oral vs. intramuscular vaccines for mass COVID-19 vaccination programs. Up to 82.25 million kgCO(2)e could be averted from utilization of an oral vaccine in the United States alone, which is equivalent to eliminating 17,700 automobiles from the road for one year. FUNDING: Funding was provided by Vaxart, Inc. Vaxart, Inc. is currently developing an oral COVID-19 vaccine, the characteristics of which were utilized to define the thermostable oral vaccine discussed in this study. Apart from providing data on the characteristics of the oral vaccine under development, the funders had no influence over the study design, methods, statistical analyses, results, framing of results, decision to submit the manuscript for publication, or choice of journal.
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spelling pubmed-88946862022-03-04 Estimating & comparing greenhouse gas emissions for existing intramuscular COVID-19 vaccines and a novel thermostable oral vaccine Patenaude, Bryan Ballreich, Jeromie J Clim Chang Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Climate impacts are rarely considered in health impact and economic assessments of public health programs. This study estimates the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions averted by a novel oral SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccine compared with four existing intramuscular vaccines: AstraZeneca's COVISHIELD®, Pfizer/BioNTech's COMIRNATY®, Moderna's mRNA-1273, and Johnson & Johnson's Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccine. METHODS: We estimated GHG emissions averted for five vaccine modalities across nine countries. GHG emissions averted were derived from differences in cold chain logistics, production of vaccine supplies, and medical waste disposal. Countryspecific data including population coverage and electricity production mix were included in GHG emissions calculations. Results are presented in averted GHG per vaccine course and country level based on modeled vaccination demand. FINDINGS: Per course, an oral vaccine is estimated to avert between 0.007 and 0.024 kgCO(2)e compared with Johnson & Johnson, 0.013 to 0.048 kgCO(2)e compared with AstraZeneca, 0.23 to 0.108 kgCO(2)e compared with Moderna, and 0.134 to 0.466 kgCO(2)e compared with Pfizer/BioNTech. The total GHG averted varied across countries based upon predicted demand, mix of electrical production, and vaccination strategy with the largest emissions reductions projected for India and the United States. INTERPRETATION: Our results demonstrate large potential GHG emissions reductions from the use of oral vs. intramuscular vaccines for mass COVID-19 vaccination programs. Up to 82.25 million kgCO(2)e could be averted from utilization of an oral vaccine in the United States alone, which is equivalent to eliminating 17,700 automobiles from the road for one year. FUNDING: Funding was provided by Vaxart, Inc. Vaxart, Inc. is currently developing an oral COVID-19 vaccine, the characteristics of which were utilized to define the thermostable oral vaccine discussed in this study. Apart from providing data on the characteristics of the oral vaccine under development, the funders had no influence over the study design, methods, statistical analyses, results, framing of results, decision to submit the manuscript for publication, or choice of journal. The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. 2022-05 2022-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8894686/ /pubmed/35262040 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2022.100127 Text en © 2022 The Authors Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Research Article
Patenaude, Bryan
Ballreich, Jeromie
Estimating & comparing greenhouse gas emissions for existing intramuscular COVID-19 vaccines and a novel thermostable oral vaccine
title Estimating & comparing greenhouse gas emissions for existing intramuscular COVID-19 vaccines and a novel thermostable oral vaccine
title_full Estimating & comparing greenhouse gas emissions for existing intramuscular COVID-19 vaccines and a novel thermostable oral vaccine
title_fullStr Estimating & comparing greenhouse gas emissions for existing intramuscular COVID-19 vaccines and a novel thermostable oral vaccine
title_full_unstemmed Estimating & comparing greenhouse gas emissions for existing intramuscular COVID-19 vaccines and a novel thermostable oral vaccine
title_short Estimating & comparing greenhouse gas emissions for existing intramuscular COVID-19 vaccines and a novel thermostable oral vaccine
title_sort estimating & comparing greenhouse gas emissions for existing intramuscular covid-19 vaccines and a novel thermostable oral vaccine
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8894686/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35262040
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2022.100127
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