Coronavirus Vaccine Shipments Quarantined in Alabama and California After Vitals Got too Cold
U.S. officials said Wednesday they quarantined several thousand doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine in California and Alabama this week after an “anomaly” in the transportation process caused the storage temperature to get too cold.
Pfizer’s vaccine, which was developed with German drugmaker BioNTech, requires a storage temperature of around minus 70 degrees Celsius. Vials of the vaccine are stored in trays, which carry a minimum of 975 doses each, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Army Gen. Gustave Perna, who oversees logistics for President Donald Trump’s vaccine program Operation Warp Speed, told reporters that two trays of the vaccine that arrived at two separate locations in California had to be returned to Pfizer after the temperature somehow fell to minus 92 degrees Celsius.
