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WASHINGTON: Cargo planes and trucks with the first U.S. shipments of coronavirus vaccine were deployed from FedEx and UPS centers in Tennessee and Kentucky on Sunday (December 13) en route to distribution points across the country, launching an immunization project of unprecedented scope and complexity.
Vaccines, seen as critical to ultimately stopping a growing pandemic that is claiming more than 2,400 lives in the United States each day, could begin Monday.
The former are likely to be at the vaccination sites closest to any of the 145 initial shipping destinations nationwide, or the ones closest to FedEx Corp or United Parcel Service freight centers that are relaying deliveries from the US. factory.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear suggested that the first shots of the vaccine would be administered in his state, home to the UPS Worldport sorting facility in Louisville, one of two distribution command centers. The other is the FedEx air cargo hub in Memphis, Tennessee.
Trucks are seen at Pfizer Global Supply’s manufacturing plant, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, in Portage, Michigan, on December 13, 2020. (Photo: Reuters / Rebecca Cook)
“We now believe that the first individuals will be vaccinated here in the commonwealth tomorrow morning. We are less than 24 hours from the beginning of the end of this virus,” Beshear wrote on Twitter Sunday.
The coronavirus vaccine, developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, won emergency-use approval from federal regulators late on Friday, paving the way for distribution to begin just 11 months after the United States. document your first COVID-19 infections.
The monumental venture began early Sunday with trucks hauling dry ice-cooled vaccine packages, which must be kept at sub-arctic temperatures, from Pfizer’s Kalamazoo, Michigan facility to UPS and FedEx planes waiting in airfields in Lansing and Grand Rapids.
TWO HUBS, MANY RADIOS
From there, delivery planes took shipments to respective UPS and FedEx freight centers in Louisville and Memphis, for distribution by planes and trucks to the first 145 of 636 vaccine preparation areas across the country. A second and third wave of vaccine shipments were due to go to the remaining sites on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Today, we are not transporting cargo, we are providing hope,” said Andrew Boyle, co-president of Boyle Transportation, who was hired by UPS to help transport the vaccine from the factory to a waiting plane in Lansing.
READ: COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments Begin in Historic US Effort.
The precious cargo was escorted to airports by security agents dressed in bulletproof vests.
People prepare boxes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo’s manufacturing facility in Portage, Michigan, on December 13, 2020 (Photo: Morry Gash / Pool via Reuters).
Bonnie Brewer, an employee at Boyle, 56, said decades of experience transporting chemotherapies and other life-saving drugs prepared her for the historic race.
“It feels amazing,” Brewer told Reuters after the cargo was safely delivered.
Healthcare workers and elderly residents of long-term care homes will be the first to receive vaccinations in a two-dose regimen given three weeks apart.
Public health officials have warned Americans not to indulge in wearing masks and avoiding crowds in the meantime.
READ: Trump, Pence, and other senior officials to receive COVID-19 vaccine: Report
More than 100 million people, or about 30 percent of the US population, could be immunized by the end of March, said US Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui, in an interview with Fox News Sunday.
That would still leave the country well below the herd immunity that would halt transmission of the virus, so masks and social distancing will be needed for months to control the devastating outbreak.
Boxes containing Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are ready to be shipped to Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo’s manufacturing facility in Portage, Michigan on December 13, 2020 (Photo: Morry Gash / Pool via Reuters).
Health officials will also have to overcome widespread hesitancy about new vaccines, as many Americans worry that the record speed at which they were developed may have compromised safety.
“However, it is critical that the majority of Americans decide and agree to get vaccinated,” Slaoui said. “We are very concerned about the hesitation we see.”
THE SPECIAL DELIVERY
The enormous logistical effort is further complicated by the need to transport and store the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine at minus 70 degrees Celsius, requiring massive amounts of dry ice or specialized ultra-cold freezers.
Workers cheered and whistled as the first boxes were loaded onto trucks at the Pfizer factory. The long-awaited moment comes as the death toll in the United States approached 300,000 and infections and hospitalizations were setting daily records. Some models project that deaths could reach 500,000 before vaccines are widely available in the spring and summer.
Slaoui said the United States expects to have about 40 million doses of vaccines, enough for 20 million people, distributed by the end of December. That would include vaccines from both Pfizer and Moderna. An external FDA advisory panel is scheduled to consider the Moderna vaccine on Thursday, with emergency use expected to be granted shortly thereafter.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine was found to be 95 percent effective in preventing disease in a large clinical trial. It is not yet known whether it prevents infection or transmission of the coronavirus.
Boxes containing Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are ready for shipment to Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo’s manufacturing facility in Portage, Michigan. (Photo: Morry Gash / Pool via REUTERS)
UPS and FedEx package delivery drivers are prioritizing vaccinations over holiday gifts and other packages, as health officials plead with the public to avoid holiday gatherings after a spike in post-day hospitalizations and deaths. Thanksgiving.
Both companies are experienced in handling fragile medical products and leave little room for error. They provide temperature and location tracking to backup devices built into Pfizer boxes and track each shipment throughout its journey.
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