WMed equipped for COVID vaccine

A new vaccine to inoculate patients against COVID-19 could be ready for distribution as soon as next week. But the two vaccines under consideration come with hefty requirements for storage and transportation.

The vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna each have to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures until they’re ready to be used. That presents a challenge for the companies delivering them and the agencies charged with keeping them on hand.

Western Michigan University’s Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine says it is ready and waiting to receive the vaccines.

In a story on Fox 17, representatives of the school said they already have two ultra low temperature freezers that could potentially hold up to 10,000 vials of a vaccine. The vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech must be stored at -94°F. Moderna’s vaccine must be stored at -4°F.

“If it’s not chilled at whatever the manufacturer has to protect it with, it would degrade,” said Dr. Prentiss Jones, WMed’s Technical Director of Toxicology.

Kalamazoo County’s Department of Health and Community Services also has an ultra low temperature freezer, and is in the process of acquiring two more.

You can read more here.