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Some 40 million doses of coronavirus vaccine are already in production. As soon as the Food and Drug Administration approves, they will start shipping.
“This will be one of the most difficult public health distribution efforts that we have seen,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Complicating the effort, the Pfizer vaccine must be kept at -94 degrees Fahrenheit and is shipped in batches of approximately 1000 doses packaged in specialized containers cooled with dry ice.
“Each box will have a monitor to go with it, so we’ll be able to monitor not only the temperature, but also where the shipments are going,” said Mike Parra, CEO of DHL Express Americas.
DHL will take care of the international vaccine shipments, moving them from the factory to a supervised airport.
“Nobody wants to fail,” Parra said. “Everyone knows that this vaccine is fundamentally a source of life.”
DHL showed CBS News its operation at Miami International Airport, where vaccine shipments will be temporarily stored in freezers and filled with dry ice before being loaded onto planes and sent to South America. Upon landing, these vaccines will be loaded onto trucks and delivered.
US airlines will also play a key role. United Airlines made its first delivery of Pfizer vaccine last week. Moderna vaccine will be easier to move because it does not need to be stored at such a low temperature. Companies like FedEx will be part of the effort to get vials quickly from shipping centers to cities and states.
“It’s going to be hard to imagine that this goes off without a hitch, that there are likely to be unforeseen problems that are going to arise when you ship so many doses of vaccine across the country,” Adalja said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is meeting on Tuesday to vote on guidelines on who will get the first shot in the arm, but Pfizer’s initial vaccine shipments are likely headed to major hospitals and clinics that have the capacity to do so. keep very cold and the volume of patients to dispense 1000 doses per box. It will increase once there are enough vaccines.
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