Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine is Now Being Shipped with UPS and Fedex
Coronavirus has ravaged most of the year but what a holiday gift the world has received with Pfizer now shipping its COVID vaccine made with partner BioNTech.
Both UPS and FedEx have started to ship 2.9 million doses of the vaccine from Pfizer plans to hospitals as well as clinics and distribution points across the United States.
The vaccine shipments will be getting special treatment, including priority access at the airport. If a plane with vaccines is coming in for landing, other passenger planes will need to circle and wait their turn.
“As I speak today, right now, vaccines are being packaged with a lot of emphasis on quality assurance. To that end, tomorrow morning, vaccines will start rolling from manufacturing to distribution hubs,” said Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, at a briefing by the Health and Human Services Department over the weekend. “And then by Monday, vaccines will be received.”
“The reason we’re both here and we’re both doing this is because we’re the only ones that can,” said Richard Smith, executive vice president of FedEx Express, referring to both FedEx and UPS.
Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be kept super cold, as in minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit, in a sealed box, with dry ice.
“We have the capability to serve every ZIP code in the United States of America,” said Smith. “This is what our network was built to do.”
“FedEx and UPS have split the country into two,” said Wes Wheeler, president of UPS Global Healthcare. “We know exactly what states we have, and they know what states they have.”
“The vaccine distribution and program implementation is going to be the most complex vaccination program ever attempted in human history,” said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director for immunization education at the Immunization Action Coalition.
Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.