[ad_1]
US officials said Wednesday that they had quarantined several thousand doses of the vaccine produced by Pfizer in California and Alabama this week after an “anomaly” in the transportation process caused the storage temperature to drop too low. CNBC, according to Mediafax.
The Pfizer vaccine, which was developed in conjunction with the German company BioNTech, requires a storage temperature of approximately minus 70 degrees Celsius. The vaccine vials are stored in trays that contain at least 975 doses each, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Also read: Journalist Răzvan Dumitrescu has Covid-19: ‘I feel great!’
General Gustave Perna, who oversees the vaccination program known as Operation Warp Speed, told reporters that two trays that arrived at two separate locations in California must be returned to Pfizer after the temperature dropped to minus 92 degrees Celsius.
The vaccine “never got out of the truck,” he said Wednesday. “I immediately returned them to Pfizer and replaced both trays. We are now working with the FDA, CDC, FDA and Pfizer to determine whether or not that anomaly is safe.”
He said the “anomaly” was repeated in Alabama.
Also read: IT’S OFFICIAL! The result of the parliamentary elections after the appeals: the ranking of the parties
“In Alabama, two trays were received in one place. The same anomaly, minus 92. We managed to stop and quarantine the vaccine and replenish the transport,” he said.
It is not clear what caused the storage temperature drop. Pfizer had no comment.
Americans began receiving the first vaccines from Pfizer months after they were licensed. Medical officials and experts have already recognized that the Pfizer vaccine will be a logistical challenge, as it must be kept at very low temperatures.
During the press release, Perna said vaccine deliveries to the U.S. are still ongoing, with another 886 deliveries expected to ship nationwide on Thursday. The federal government delivered 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week. Next week, the government plans to deliver another 2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, as well as 5.9 million doses of the Moderna vaccine if the FDA approves it, Perna said.
The FDA’s advisory committee on vaccines and related biologics, an outside group of medical experts who advise the agency, will vote Thursday to recommend the Moderna vaccine for emergency use. A favorable vote from the committee will pave the way for the Moderna vaccine to become the second approved for use in the United States, after the Pfizer variant. FDA approval could come Friday.
“It’s a constant stream of deliveries to the American people,” Perna said.
[ad_2]
