New York Times: An Island Nation Starts an Experiment: Vaccines Delivered by Drone
“In the village of Cook’s Bay, on the remote side of the remote island of Erromango, in the remote South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, one-month-old Joy Nowai was given hepatitis and tuberculosis shots delivered by a flying drone on Monday. It may not have been the first vial of vaccine ever delivered that way, but it was the first in Vanuatu, which is the only country in the world to make its childhood vaccine program officially drone-dependent. … [T]he country, with support from UNICEF, the Australian government, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, began its drone program on Monday. It will initially serve three islands but may be expanded to many more…” (McNeil, 12/17).