Paris, France: Gérald Cavalier, president of the Science and Technology Council of the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR), has shared his perspective on the pivotal role that the cold chain will continue to play in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic and the race to provide a vaccine worldwide.
In a detailed article. Cavalier said: “When the pharmaceutical laboratory Pfizer announced the imminent application for marketing authorisation of its Covid-19 vaccine, indicating storage temperatures of −80°C, the cold chain, usually ignored by all, made the headlines.”
In the article Cavalier explores what the Covid-19 vaccines will require in terms of the cold chain and what solutions there are for the distribution of the vaccines.
He concludes: “The temperature-controlled logistics of the global massive vaccination against Covid-19 is a real challenge, as much for its unprecedented importance as for its technical specificity, as announced by several laboratories.
Whether at temperatures below −20°C or −80°C, for all or part of the chain, new means will have to be put in place with costs significantly higher than typically implemented for vaccine logistics. This is a matter for experts and specialists. The most precise information, particularly concerning temperature requirements, must be made available as soon as possible.”
