Texas just became the first US state to hit 1 million cases of Covid-19

As Molly Howell, a public health official from North Dakota, watched a webinar on how to distribute what is expected to be the United States’ first Covid-19 vaccine, her head began to spin.

“How are we going to do this?” she texted a colleague who was also on the webinar.

Her coworker responded with an exploding head emoji.

On Monday, Pfizer announced that the first results of Phase 3 clinical trials show its vaccine to be more than 90% effective. If approved, Pfizer’s vaccine will also be the most fragile vaccine in use in the United States, and public health officials responsible for distributing it fear the process will not go smoothly.

Pfizer’s vaccine should be stored at about minus 75 degrees Celsius, which is about 50 degrees cooler than any other vaccine currently in use in the United States. Doctors’ offices, pharmacies and public laboratories do not have freezers this low.

The solution is a set of handling and storage requirements that a doctor from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described as “very complex.”

The CDC has asked states to be ready to receive Pfizer’s vaccine by November 15, but state officials say the first time they heard the specific requirements was on October 15 , which gave them weeks to prepare.

State health officials were “shocked” when they heard the storage requirements for the new vaccine, according to Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, which supports the vaccine. frontline workers who will administer the coronavirus vaccine. These requirements include the purchase and handling of large quantities of dry ice, which is rare in many parts of the country.

“We are all going into this area expecting major problems,” she said.

Read more: