Coronavirus: how the deep-freezed Pfizer vaccine will be rolled out across Britain
Care homes may face delays in getting deliveries of the Covid-19 jab owing to logistical difficulties
The world’s first approved coronavirus vaccine is also, unfortunately, one of the most complex to distribute.
The need to keep the drug at a temperature of minus 70C has led its manufacturers, Pfizer and BioNTech, to develop an “innovative way to transport the vials”, says The Telegraph - but one that introduced its own challenges.
After rolling off the production line in the Belgium town of Puurs, near Antwerp, “the doses will be packed into special cool boxes the size of a suitcase, packed with dry ice and GPS trackers”, the paper explains. “These reusable boxes can safely store up to 5,000 doses of the vaccine for ten days.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The carefully packaged doses will be shipped by both air and road to the UK, and then distributed to vaccination hubs. “Fifty NHS hospitals in England are already equipped with super-cold freezers that can keep the vaccine at minus 70C,” the Daily Mail reports.
The problem for the government is that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended that care home residents should be among the first people to receive the jab - but getting doses to them will be tricky.
Separating out a small batch for a single care home will mean vials “have to be removed from the dry ice suitcases for transport”, says the Mail. “But once they are in transit, the doses could perish after six hours.”
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said yesterday that care home staff would be vaccinated first, along with NHS staff and people aged over 80 who can travel to a hospital vaccination centre.
The health service is investigating safe ways of transporting smaller vaccine batches, he added, and “as soon as we have the regulatory sign-off”, deliveries to care homes will begin.
“GP practices will then operate local vaccination centres as more vaccine becomes available,” reports the London Evening Standard.
Immunisations are expected to begin early next week, using the first 800,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine - enough to give 400,000 people the two-shot course. A total of ten million doses are expected to be delivered this month, and another 30 million next year.
Meanwhile, the Moderna and Oxford vaccines, which do not have to be kept at such low temperatures, are still awaiting approval from regulators.
Delivering all of the various Covid-19 vaccines, once approved, will be “the largest and most complex global logistics operation ever undertaken”, according to the International Air Transport Association.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Holden Frith is The Week’s digital director. He also makes regular appearances on “The Week Unwrapped”, speaking about subjects as diverse as vaccine development and bionic bomb-sniffing locusts. He joined The Week in 2013, spending five years editing the magazine’s website. Before that, he was deputy digital editor at The Sunday Times. He has also been TheTimes.co.uk’s technology editor and the launch editor of Wired magazine’s UK website. Holden has worked in journalism for nearly two decades, having started his professional career while completing an English literature degree at Cambridge University. He followed that with a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. A keen photographer, he also writes travel features whenever he gets the chance.
-
6 stylish homes in Portland, Oregon
Feature Featuring a wall of windows in Collins View and a historic ballroom in Portland Heights
By The Week US Published
-
What's next for US interest rates?
The Explainer Stubborn inflation forestalls anticipated rate cuts
By Becca Stanek, The Week US Published
-
Russia rattles nuclear saber, orders tactical nuke drills
Speed Read President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian military to hold nuclear weapons drills in response to Western "threats"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Covid four years on: have we got over the pandemic?
Today's Big Question Brits suffering from both lockdown nostalgia and collective trauma that refuses to go away
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
The hollow classroom
Opinion Remote school let kids down. It will take much more than extra tutoring for kids to recover.
By Mark Gimein Published
-
Excess screen time is making children only see what is in front of them
Under the radar The future is looking blurry. And very nearsighted.
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Covid-19: what to know about UK's new Juno and Pirola variants
in depth Rapidly spreading new JN.1 strain is 'yet another reminder that the pandemic is far from over'
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Long-term respiratory illness is here to stay
The Explainer Covid is not the only disease with a long version
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Covid inquiry: the most important questions for Boris Johnson
Talking Point Former PM has faced weeks of heavy criticism from former colleagues at the public hearing
By The Week Staff Published
-
China's pneumonia cases: should we be worried?
The Explainer Experts warn against pushing 'pandemic panic button' following outbreak of respiratory illness
By Keumars Afifi-Sabet, The Week UK Published
-
Vallance diaries: Boris Johnson 'bamboozled' by Covid science
Speed Read Then PM struggled to get his head around key terms and stats, chief scientific advisor claims
By The Week UK Published