IMAC: Supporting vaccination in the Pacific

IMAC’s role in the Pacific focuses on vaccination training and support for the Comirnaty (Pfizer) vaccine. However, closed borders during the height of the pandemic forced much of the training to go fully remote. Local conditions also presented challenges.

“The internet connections on some of the islands did not permit everyone to use Zoom or in some cases to access the online learning platform at all,” says Moelagi Leilani Jackson, IMAC’s Pacific Islands programme manager. “We used a train-the-trainer approach where countries would select their leads, we’d train them, and they’d train the nurses who didn’t have access to the internet.”

IMAC shipped over equipment in advance to ensure learners had access to the items being demonstrated. It also provided printable materials.

Working out how to keep vaccines cold was another challenge. For long-term storage, the Comirnaty vaccine must be kept at the ultra-cold temperature of -70 Celsius.

Initially, vaccines bound for Tokelau – the most isolated of the seven countries – were transported on a chartered naval ship, in a -20-degree freezer. Subsequently, a process to transport vaccines by flight and chartered boat was found to be possible with the vaccine stored at -70.

“Being able to get it there in the ultra-cold state is a huge gain for the Pacific Islands in terms of having more transport time to their outreach centres,” says Bernadette Heaphy, IMAC’s cold chain lead. “It’s pretty cool, literally.”