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How Dry Ice Is Helping the Coronavirus Vaccine Program

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Leon Edwards
How Dry Ice Is Helping the Coronavirus Vaccine Program

As we continue to wait for the safe and successful roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine, many of us logistical thinkers are left wondering: how are they going to do it?

 

By ‘they’, we mean the vaccine manufacturers, and by ‘do it’, we mean how will they be refrigerated, transported and successfully given out across the globe?

 

The answer lies within the real hero behind the scenes for pharmaceutical refrigeration: dry ice. We’ve spoken to the Cold Jet experts where you can buy dry ice Cold Jet products for the safe refrigeration of food, food processing, pharmaceuticals and catering to get a better understand of the role of dry ice in vaccination programs for COVID-19.

 

How Is Dry Ice Helping with the Coronavirus Vaccine Program?

 

We know that the COVID-19 vaccines and the procedure of the vaccine programs requires ultra low temperatures and freezers. The nature of the Pfizer vaccine means it needs to be kept at extremely low temperatures during shipment, storage and successful provision of vaccination. To achieve this, the vials of the frozen vaccine are being shipped and stored in insulated thermal shipping containers containing dry ice. The dry ice allows for the vaccine to remain frozen at this extremely low temperature, for extended periods of time.

 

Is Dry Ice Safe?

 

Dry Ice is FDA and EPA approved around the use of food, pharmaceuticals and commercial processing. However, handling dry ice, particularly in the project of dry ice shipment for vaccines, requires care. Local safe work practices for using ultra low temperature dry ice must be observed – contact with dry ice can cause cold burns, and carbon dioxide gas may cause asphyxiation if it is not allowed to escape into the atmosphere. Those handling the dry ice vaccine program will require the use of PPE, to ensure there are no risks of accident or injury.

 

While the promises of the new vaccines begin to become the reality, the hero of the entire roll out really will be dry ice. Dry ice materials will act as the backbone for the safe transportation, shipping and roll out of such vaccines – we wouldn’t be able to rely on the vaccinations without the help of dry ice.

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Leon Edwards
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