[nudephil (OP)]

We got this question sent in by Julian:

As the two vaccine candidates (Pfizer and Moderna) both use intra muscular injection, would it be feasible to train laypeople (ie without prior medical training) to administer the jabs to facilitate the speed of any inoculation program? Practice nurses and GPs are already under huge pressure with the addition of the flu jab, so could this intervening time period before any of the vaccine candidates are approved be used to increase resilience? What are the downside risks to potentially poorly administered intramuscular injection (apart from infection)?

[alancalverd]

Powderject and Epipen delivery systems can be used with minimal and no training respectively. As far as the UK is concerned, mass inoculation would most efficiently be done by the army, and given the 6 months likely to elapse before any vaccine is available in sufficient quantity, I guess the average squaddie could be trained to do just one job that isn't far removed from his basic first aid training, even if the only delivery system is conventional hypodermic.

But between now and then we have a government that is demonstrably capable of giving the money to a private company with no syringes, sending the wrong sort of aircraft to collect it, or devising a worldbeating system for doing absolutely nothing, at your expense. The only question is whose brother-in-law will trouser the cash this time?