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General Gustave Perna, who oversees the vaccination program known as Operation Warp Speed, said that two trays (one tray containing nearly 1,000 doses) that arrived at two separate locations in California must be returned to Pfizer after the temperature dropped to -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.
“Two trays were received in one place in Alabama. The same anomaly, minus 92. We managed to stop and quarantine the vaccine and replace the transport,” he said.
It is not clear what caused the storage temperature drop. Pfizer had no comment.
The Pfizer vaccine, which was developed in conjunction with the German company BioNTech, requires a storage temperature of approximately minus 70 degrees Celsius. The vaccines are stored in trays that contain at least 975 doses each, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The modern vaccine continues
Americans began receiving the first vaccines from Pfizer on Monday, after it was 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 United States 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 Modern 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.
“This is a constant rate of delivery to the American people,” Perna said.
