A Blockchain-Based Approach for COVID-19 Vaccine Lifecycle

ABSTRACT

Vaccination is a cost-effective health practice that prevents or reduces patients’ hospitalization, illness, and death. In case of a pandemic as the COVID-19 outbreak, vaccination is a more challenging situation due to the urgency in controlling the spread of a high infecting disease. Public acceptance of vaccines is critical to the success of immunization campaigns, being affected by the poor knowledge about vaccination and the existence of fake news. People need to know who needs to be vaccinated, which vaccines exist, when they should get vaccinated, and where to get vaccinated. Governments and health agencies need to approve, acquire, distribute, and administer the vaccines in a short period. Information related to the vaccine lifecycle is important for decision-makers to deliver vaccines effectively and equitably, through the development of immunization programs and their continuous improvement. Blockchain is a technology that stores data in blocks chained together in chronological order and replicated over a network. Blockchain data is decentralized, encrypted, and cross-checked, which in turn ensures security, immutability, transparency and trust. Such characteristics make Blockchain a reliable platform to address COVID-19 vaccine lifecycle. We investigate how the lifecycle of the COVID-19 vaccine can benefit from an approach based on Blockchain. We discuss the scenarios of vaccine research, production, distribution, and administration, as well as monitoring of disease cases. The main goal of the proposed Blockchain-based approach is to offer a transparent and trustable platform for all stakeholders that take part in the scenarios related to COVID-19 vaccines, including government entities and citizens. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.