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Transporting vaccines against the new coronavirus worldwide, at temperatures of minus 70 degrees, is one of the largest logistics operations in history. Refrigerated containers are also used with which fresh tuna was usually transported, reports CNN.
Thermo King, which revolutionized food transportation before World War II, works with pharmaceutical companies, governments, and logistics companies to make sure vaccines stay cold.
To make this happen, the company reused the containers commonly used to transport fresh tuna to Japan, which require similar cold conditions.
„I took that product and changed it, “Francesco Incalza, president of Thermo King Europe, Middle East and Africa, told CNN Business, quoted by Mediafax.
Tuna should be stored at minus 60 degrees Celsius to maintain its quality and deep red hue when it reaches supermarkets and restaurants, Incalza said. The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech must be transported at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
So the company made some changes to the reefer containers, adding additional insulation and adjusting the refrigeration system so that the temperatures could be even colder.
Each 20-meter long container can carry 300,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine, the first to be approved for use in Western countries after rigorous testing, by land or sea. Some have already been sold and are beginning to be delivered.
Pharmaceuticals generally need to be kept at 2-8 degrees Celsius during transportation. But the Pfizer vaccine is different. Another vaccine in the approval process, produced by Moderna, can be kept at -20 degrees Celsius.
Logistics experts say that keeping vaccines cold is one of the main problems in on its worldwide distribution. But they think this thing it is possible, given complexity the so-called “string Alabama coldcommunity” it already exists, which has held food and medicine around the world for decades at specific temperatures.
Technology is not cheap. Imperial College London finds that much of the cost of vaccination programs comes from chain requirements COLD, which can represent up to 80% of the total costs.
Safety is also a concern. Earlier this month, IBM announce that hackers targeted key players in the chain COLD and that the effort had “the characteristics of a state-sponsored attack.” The companies that make up the chain COLD they say their products are safe and do not see attacks as a major threat.
Editing: Monica Bonea
