As a graduate chemical engineer, I would propose the development of courses in large-scale vaccine production and for such courses to be available to students of chemical engineering or related fields. These should be available both at first degree and master’s levels. Such courses could lead to a rapid increase in engineers and technologists who will be able to spearhead industrial production. The proposed courses should be modular, and should cover plant design, plant construction, instrumentation and control, and operation. Scientists around the world agree that, while the present pandemic is very serious, there will be future pandemics for which we need to plan. Planning for a pandemic has not been our forte in the recent past in the UK. And we now realise that, to our cost. We need to – indeed we must – remedy this shortcoming.
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