Proposed Federal Organization for the Coronavirus Vaccine to US Citizens (Essay Sample)

 DATE \@ "d MMMM yyyy" 10 March 2021
Proposed Federal Organization to Streamline the Creation, Manufacturing, and Delivery of the Coronavirus Vaccine to the American Public
Introduction
During the first half of year 2020, the globe was gripped by a new type of virus recognized as Covid-19 or Coronavirus Disease-19. The virus originated in Wuhan, China and tremendously spread worldwide leading to significant economic damage and human tragedy. Covid-19 cases globally hit 118 million in March 2021with over 2.5 million deaths and close to 94 million recoveries (‘Coronavirus Cases’). The United States has been adversely affected by this pandemic which has disrupted the economy with unprecedented speed and force. Unemployment has accelerated swiftly than it did during the Great Recession. In 2020, over 3.28 million Americans sought unemployment benefits, the greatest figure ever recorded before (Pickert 2020). Unlike other nations, the U.S. is leading worldwide in Covid-19 cases with over 29 million infections and over half a million deaths (Coronavirus Cases: U.S). The daily mortality rate is similar to the 9/11 attack which result in 2988 deaths, happening nearly every day or 320 jetliners or 15 Airbus each with passenger capacity of 150, crashing each day.
Problem Identification
Despite sufficient caution, immense resources, scientific expertise, and biomedical might the state squandered every potential opportunity to contain the spread of this pandemic. While nations such as Australia, Slovakia, Iceland, Thailand and South Korea acted decisively to flatten the curve, the United States accomplished merely a plateau throughout the spring and an upward increase during the summer 2020. A sluggish state rejoinder denuded of expertise permitted Covid-19 to secure a foothold. With an inefficient and bloated healthcare system, the state was ill prepared to deal with the ensuing outbreak. The United States has the most unique health care system among industrialized nations (Barrows 2020). It does not have universal health coverage and a uniform health system unlike other nations, and its only lately enacted legislation requiring virtually everyone to have healthcare coverage.
The state maintain a hybrid system whereby healthcare coverage is delivered using public and private health insurance plans such as Medicaid and Medicare. This paper proposes the establishment of a federal health organization, Ameritech, to streamline the creation, manufacturing, and delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine to the American public. Establishment of a state corporation can ensure that millions of Americans above 16 years, at great risk of exposure, and drawn from varied backgrounds receive Covid-19 vaccination.
Analysis
What is a firm and why does it exist?
Adam Smith commenced in his ‘Wealth of Nations’ with an accurate explanation concerning the division of labor in a pin plant. However, he did not comprehensive clarify the reason why firms exists. Similarly, neoclassical economics did not discuss much about the subject. Oliver Williamson and Professor Ronald Coase reinvigorated the discussion concerning the pin factory positioning it at the heart of economics. Coase noted that firms were ‘islands of conscious authority plunged in an ocean of unconscious collaboration’ (Coase 35). In principle, he explained that firms should search for the most productive and cheapest services and goods through outsourcing them in an open and efficient market. Nonetheless, the marketplace is not perfectly fluid as firms incur transaction costs in the process of obtaining services and goods outside the entity (‘Economic 308 Handout 1’). Coase recommends searching for the appropriate personalities, negotiating contractual arrangements, coordinating and managing the work, as well as intellectual property. Firms exist to make it less costly and easier to get work completed.
Ameritech Medical Supplies Authority (AMSA) is a federal organization under the Ministry of Health created under AMSA Act 2021. AMSA exists to accomplish the basic reason why firms exists.
To diversify risk in the development, manufacture, and delivery of Covid-19 vaccine to the American public
Enjoy economies of scope and scale in the manufacture, and delivery of Covid-19 vaccine to the American public
Solve coordination challenges concerning the development, manufacture, and delivery of Covid-19 vaccine to the American public
To establish bond with trading associates via reputation
Specifically, AMSA exists to ensure that the Covid-19 vaccine is acquired easily and at a lesser cost to curb the spread of coronavirus. The firm’s specific mandate is to streamline the creation, manufacturing, and delivery of the coronavirus vaccine to the American public. Presently the U.S. Public Health Service and Health Care Financing Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services are the primary units tasked with managing public health. In line with Professor Coase’s reason regarding the existence of a firm, AMSA seeks to liaise with the U.S Department of Defense (DOD) to sign contracts with pharmaceutical companies for the creation, manufacture, and distribution of different variants of Covid-19 vaccines. A contract is a legal arrangement to enhance deferred exchange (‘Economic 308 Handout 1’). Signing contracts with renowned pharmaceuticals companies whose vaccines have better efficacy and have passed US Clinical trials is an optimal method since it’s cheaper compared to establishing a state manufacturing plant. The opportunity cost of establishing own plant is significantly high since more Covid-19 infections deaths would occur before the vaccine reaches clinical trials.
Basic Managerial economics
AMSA is confronted with various organizational architecture issues. Some of the challenges include how to assign decision rules and rights within the entity, how to divide tasks into units, how to recruit and retain a qualified workforce for specific jobs, how to design a compensation system to effectively reward workers, and how evaluate employee performance within the firm (‘Economic 308 Handout 1’). AMSA will utilize traditional and contemporary forms of mass media to advertise available positions in the newly established federal firm. Officials drawn from the Department of Health and Human Services will vet candidates who meet the required criteria and select the most qualified persons. Once successful candidates are hired to fill the vacant positions in the firm, the CEO and Director will assign decision rules and rights in the firm and divide tasks to officials below the organization hierarchy depending on their specialization.
AMSA views success in the creation, manufacture, and delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine to the American public in two ways: Relative and absolute. Relative success is a function of habits and choices while absolute success is an outcome of luck. AMSA recognizes that is success is relative and not absolute, hence will be heavily shaped by different organizational dimensions such as culture, norms, values, and behavior. In this regard, it has benchmarked against Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) since it has effectively handled the Covid-19 pandemic, recording only 955 cases and 9 fatalities ('Taiwan's SARS Experience Helped It Beat COVID-19'). Benchmarking entails isolating the best organization in the marketplace and imitating it (‘Economic 308 Handout 1’). Before other governments registered the coronavirus pandemic on their radar, the CEEC was already testing and placing into quarantine travelers drawn from origin place of the virus. It leveraged technology to identify suspected cases and maintained appropriate resources and materials such as medical officers, face masks, and lab capacity to deal with any outbreak before the Covid-19 outbreak.
SARS outbreak in 2003 enabled Taiwan to learn and enhance its healthcare system in preparation of future pandemics ('Taiwan's SARS Experience Helped It Beat COVID-19'). Another important reason for benchmarking against Taiwan is that the CECC is at the early stages of establishing its own vaccine plant that is capable of manufacture approximately 20 million vaccines every month, thus meeting its needs. Covid-19 vaccines is a national security material owing to the security implications. Just like Taiwan, it is critical that AMSA partners with DOD to control its supply. At the moment, AMSA will outsource the manufacture of the vaccine to deal with the burgeoning Covid-19 cases, while preparing the ground for development and manufacture of its own vaccine.
Basic Economic Principles
AMSA targets to provide the Covid-19 vaccine to Americans aged 16 years and above. Pfizer’s vaccine is approved for use by individuals aged 16 years and above making one of the shortlisted vaccine for delivery to the American public. Nonetheless, the vaccine must be stored at ‘ultra cold’ temperatures making it less attractive for Americans with power problems. Modern vaccine the second preferred vaccine since it developed through the same technology such as Pfizer’s BioNTech vaccine and can be easily stored in a normal refrigerator. A dose of Moderna retails around $25-37$ per dose and has an efficacy rate of approximately 95%. It must be administered twice with the second vaccination date being after 28 days. BioNTech vaccine, on the other hand, also has 95% efficacy, should be administered twice, and retails around 19.50$ for the first 100 million doses (Terry 2021).
Presently there American population is slightly above 332 million people with the targeted population (Americans 16 years and above) being above 253 million (‘Kids Count Data Center&rsqu...