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> -80C storage and transport needed. Challenging, but doable in developed countries, but still may slow down mass rollout. Not feasible in many developing count

> -80C storage and transport needed. Challenging, but doable in developed countries, but still may slow down mass rollout. Not feasible in many developing countries. True but it's also a bit more complicated than that. The YouTube channel Wendover Productions has a great video on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byW1GExQB84 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byW1GExQB84 (skip to 5:01 for the talk about the cold chain). TL;DW, there are other factors: - Whether the hospital is able to maintain the vaccine at the required temperature (many, especially the smaller ones, don't have the equipment) - This is medical technology and unproven options (like buying a random box off Alibaba like someone suggested) are unlikely to be used - Pfizer (vaccine in TFA) has developed a shipment container that uses dry ice and lasts 10 days but it can only be opened twice a day, for less than a minute at a time, so facilities administering vaccines need to be able to accurately predict how many they'll administer in a given day - Pfizer's box is only built for multiples of a thousand doses and only lasts 10 days so isn't well-suited to smaller areas that can't administer 1000 vaccines in 10 days

Kliment 6y ago
This is all true but is missing some important detail - the box (shipment container suggests shipping container sized things, it's more of a flight case size thing) is meant for long distance transport, rather than local distribution. It holds the vaccines at -80C for ten days, and can be refilled with dry ice (which is widely available anywhere that has a carbonated drinks industry) to extend that period. The ten days is how long it's expected to be in continuous transit, worst-case. The vaccine must be thawed before use, and can be stored in a regular freezer for a few days, just not indefinitely. Since the transport cases are reusable, and don't need to be completely populated, what will likely happen in rural areas is that they'll have a case for shipment, refill it with dry ice on site, and use a second case to transport a small number of doses to the point of use. Repeat until used up, refilling with dry ice every few days at a central location (less than a week's travel from administration sites). I don't think it's going to be a major problem in practice.

Kliment 6y ago

This is all true but is missing some important detail - the box (shipment container suggests shipping container sized things, it's more of a flight case size thing) is meant for long distance transport, rather than local distribution. It holds the vaccines at -80C for ten days, and can be refilled with dry ice (which is widely available anywhere that has a carbonated drinks industry) to extend that period. The ten days is how long it's expected to be in continuous transit, worst-case. The vaccine must be thawed before use, and can be stored in a regular freezer for a few days, just not indefinitely. Since the transport cases are reusable, and don't need to be completely populated, what will likely happen in rural areas is that they'll have a case for shipment, refill it with dry ice on site, and use a second case to transport a small number of doses to the point of use. Repeat until used up, refilling with dry ice every few days at a central location (less than a week's travel from administration sites). I don't think it's going to be a major problem in practice.