FILE PHOTO: Shipping containers with dry ice blocks, primarily used in food storage, are seen before being loaded onto trucks at CryoCarb, a dry ice facility that could help supply dry ice to the area to keep the Pfizer coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine cool, in Beloit, Wisconsin, U.S., December 4, 2020. REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As health officials from rural areas prepare to vaccinate people scattered over thousands of miles in what could be the most complex such campaign in U.S. history, they face the additional challenge of finding enough dry ice to keep a Pfizer vaccine that must be stored at sub Arctic temperatures from spoiling.
The vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE could be authorized for emergency use as soon as this week and must be transported and stored at -70 degrees Celsius (minus 94°F), requiring specialized ultra-cold freezers or dry ice.
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