The world is facing a growing sand shortage, though, with less than 1,000 sand and gravel mines across the US, experts warn. It could delay production of the billions of glass vials needed to get the coronavirus vaccine to populations around the world. Experts predict demand for glass vials will shoot up by one to two billion over the next two years, straining the glass shortage even further. Since sand is the chief component in glass, there's also been a global shortage of glass at least 2015, according to FiveThirtyEight.com. Even if the vaccine is loaded into 10-dose vials, vaccine expert James Robinson told FiveThreeSix, that's still hundreds of millions of vials needed for this pandemic alone.

Source: Daily Mail March 05, 2021 23:25 UTC