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TOKYO: With tropical heat, remote island communities and a shortage of ultra-cold freezers, many Asian countries are not betting that Pfizer’s experimental vaccine will solve their Covid-19 crisis anytime soon.
The world applauded on Monday when Pfizer Inc announced that its injection, developed in conjunction with BioNTech SE, was more than 90% effective based on initial test results.
However, health experts cautioned that the vaccine, if approved, was not a silver bullet, especially since the genetic material from which it is made must be stored at temperatures of -70 ° C (-94 F) or below. .
These requirements pose a particularly daunting challenge for countries in Asia, as well as places like Africa and Latin America, where intense heat is often compounded by poor infrastructure that will make it difficult to keep the “cold chain” intact during deliveries to rural areas. and islands.
That’s a problem for everyone in the world, given that the World Health Organization estimates that around 70% of people need to be vaccinated to end the pandemic, and Asia alone is home to more than 4.6 billion, or three fifths. parts of the world population.
Some Asian countries are prioritizing containing the new coronavirus over looking to store vaccines, while others are looking for alternatives to the messenger RNA technology used by Pfizer that requires ultra-cold storage.
“In the cold chain requirement of -70 ° C, that is an important requirement. We don’t have that facility, ”Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque told Reuters.
“We will have to wait and see for now,” he added. “The technology that Pfizer is using is new technology. We have no experience with that, so the stakes can be high. “
Pfizer told Reuters it had developed detailed logistics plans and tools to support the transportation, storage and continuous temperature monitoring of vaccines.
“We have also developed packaging and storage innovations to accommodate the variety of locations where we believe vaccines will be made,” he said.
‘The vaccine is history for the future’
However, even richer countries like South Korea and Japan are managing expectations.
“Storage will be a huge challenge for us,” said Fumie Sakamoto, infection control manager at St Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo.
“I am not sure how well prepared our government is with regard to maintaining the cold chain. Hospitals in Japan don’t usually have ultra-cold freezers, but I think it’s about time we started thinking about the logistics of the vaccine. “
Japan is among three Asia Pacific countries that have announced supply agreements for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. It has signed a deal for 120 million doses, while Australia has secured 10 million doses and China’s Fosun has secured 10 million doses for Hong Kong and Macao.
Japan’s PHC Corp, which supplies medical freezers, told Reuters that demand had soared 150% this year and that they were increasing production to meet demand.
Kwon Jun-wook, an official with the South Korean Disease Prevention and Control Agency (KDCA), said he wanted to see how vaccination progresses in other countries first and would thoroughly review his supply chain.
The country had recently experienced cold storage problems when it had to dispose of around 5 million doses of flu vaccines because they were not stored at recommended temperatures.
A 2018 study commissioned by the agency found that only a quarter of the 2,200 private clinics it surveyed had medical refrigerators, and 40% used household refrigerators.
For some countries, it is still too early.
Indonesia, whose 273 million people are scattered across more than 17,000 islands, is considering a variety of vaccines, but Pfizer’s is not yet among them, said Airlangga Hartarto, who heads the country’s Covid-19 response team.
Vietnam, which successfully contained its outbreak through aggressive mass testing and strict border controls, said it would continue to focus on containment efforts.
“The vaccine is a story for the future,” Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam told a government meeting on Friday.
“The demand is much higher than the supply, and we have to pay large deposits to secure our position, which I see as a very high risk and a waste of time and money.”
