Pfizer Vaccine Faces Storage And Distribution Hurdles

Agence France-Presse reports:

The vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, on track to be the first authorized for use in the United States, must be stored at -94 degrees Fahrenheit (-70 degrees Celsius), whereas the flu vaccine can be kept in a normal refrigerator.

Pfizer vaccines distributed in the US will come from its largest manufacturing plant located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Their ship-out will include a precise, clockwork-like dance of containers, trucks and planes.

Thermal shipping containers will each be filled with dry ice and 975 vials of the vaccine which each contain five doses, for a total of 4,875 doses. Every day six trucks will take the doses to air carriers such as FedEx, UPS or DHL, which will deliver them across the United States in one to two days and across the globe in three, Pfizer told AFP.

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