How Covid-19 vaccines will get from the factory to millions of Americans | Bahar Aliakbarian

Pfizer and Moderna will need special supply chains to ensure vaccines get to patients fast and without spoiling. Here's how

The two major US developers of the early Covid-19 vaccines are Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. They both developed mRNA vaccines, a relatively new type of vaccine. A major supply chain issue is the temperature requirement for these vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at between minus 112F (minus 80C) and minus 94F (minus 70C), and the Moderna vaccine needs temperatures around minus 4F (minus 20C), which is close to the temperature of commercial-grade freezers. A third company developing vaccines, AstraZeneca, says it needs regular refrigeration temperature of 36F to 46F, or 2 to 8C.