The COVID-19 outbreak has demonstrated the diverse challenges that supply chains face to significant disruptions. Vaccine supply chains are no exception. Therefore, it is elemental that challenges to the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain (VSC) are identified and prioritized to pave the way out of this pandemic. This study combines the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method with intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFS) to explore the key challenges of the COVID-19 VSC. The IFS theory tackles the uncertainty of key challenges while DEMATEL addresses the interlaced causal relationships among crucial challenges to the COVID-19 VSC. This work identifies 15 challenges and reveals that ‘Limited number of vaccine manufacturing companies’, ‘Inappropriate coordination with local organizations’, ‘Lack of vaccine monitoring bodies’, ‘Difficulties in monitoring and controlling vaccine temperature’, and ‘Vaccination cost and lack of financial support for vaccine purchase’ are the most critical challenges. The causal interactions along with mutual relationships among these challenges are also scrutinized, and implications for sustainable development goals (SDGs) are drawn. The results offer practical guidelines for stakeholders and government policy makers around the world to develop an improved VSC for the COVID-19 virus.

COVID-19 的爆发表明供应链面临着严重中断的各种挑战。疫苗供应链也不例外。因此，确定并优先考虑 COVID-19 疫苗供应链 (VSC) 面临的挑战至关重要，以便为摆脱这一流行病铺平道路。本研究将决策试验和评估实验室 (DEMATEL) 方法与直觉模糊集 (IFS) 相结合，探索 COVID-19 VSC 的关键挑战。 IFS 理论解决了关键挑战的不确定性，而 DEMATEL 则解决了 COVID-19 VSC 关键挑战之间相互交织的因果关系。这项工作确定了15项挑战，并揭示了“疫苗生产企业数量有限”、“与当地组织协调不当”、“缺乏疫苗监测机构”、“疫苗温度监测和控制困难”以及“疫苗成本和缺乏”疫苗购买的财政支持”是最严峻的挑战。还仔细研究了这些挑战之间的因果相互作用以及相互关系，并得出了对可持续发展目标（SDG）的影响。研究结果为世界各地的利益相关者和政府决策者开发针对 COVID-19 病毒的改进 VSC 提供了实用指南。