Regarding the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the cold storage requirements for shipping and end use are apparently not as extreme as longer term storage. Reference was made to this on a recent press conference at the White House. It appears that Pfizer/BioNTech have shipping containers that use dry ice and the vaccine can be maintained for a week or more with dry ice. Also, once thawed, the vaccine is apparently usable for up to 5 days. Needless to say, the essentially "just in time delivery" nature of this vaccine complicates the logistics but it doesn't sound as if new refrigeration equipment will be needed at every end use location.
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Originally Posted by blueash
One factor is that the Pfizer product has severe temperature requirements. In a study you can be sure the facilities were doing a great job of protecting the vaccine from warming. I am less convinced that community pharmacies and shippers will be able to have the same guarantee of keeping the product extremely cold. I don't see data on how much efficacy is lost if the product is not kept at the recommended temp.
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