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Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

-80C is dry ice (frozen CO2) temperature. So you can carry vaccine vials around in a cooler with a block of dry ice. Pfizer has a dry ice shipping container good for 10 days. FedEx can ship that. Then the vaccine can be stored at refrigerator temperature for maybe 5 days. Dry Ice costs maybe $3/Kg.

The SF bay area has dry ice delivery.[1] Lagos, Nigeria has dry ice delivery.[2] Bismark, North Dakota has a dry ice plant.[3] It's not hard to get.

Coolers for holding items in dry ice are about $100 on Alibaba.[4]

This doesn't look like a big problem.

[1] https://bensdryice.com/

[2] https://www.businesslist.com.ng/company/256889/greatsmith-re...

[3] http://www.dryiceweb.com/Praxair/Bismarck_ND.htm

[4] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Vaccine-Carrier-Biome...

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It's still more difficult and expensive than the alternative.

It's not a big deal for the first world, but poorer nations may hold out for future vaccines that remain stable at higher temperatures and only require a single dose.

Base technology first, then convenience features.

Merck is working on a one-dose pill, but that's not expected before mid-2021.

There's micro encapsulation for vaccines.[1][2] The vulnerable active molecule can be put inside a coating that is stable in storage but dissolves after injection.

[1] https://www.academia.edu/33376119/Microencapsulation_of_Vacc...

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbio...

>but poorer nations may hold out for future vaccines that remain stable at higher temperatures and only require a single dose.

Valid point, but I feel there's never been a better time for massively pushing this vaccine (after proper testing and regulatory approval, of course) to medium/low income countries.

Winter should make it much easier in managing the temperature range stability required for storing/shipping the vaccine, especially in countries around the equatorial region.

Doing it in late spring/summer will not be a good idea (assuming a better vaccine doesn't come out by then).

By late spring/summer you mean midwinter in the southern hemisphere.

Having something is different than having something at scale and being able to effectively implement it. Logistics in less developed countries is already more difficult. Adding in specialty refrigeration requirements further complicates that. Large scale logistics should never be assumed or hand waved away. Mass toilet paper shortages in first world countries this year is a perfect example of how easy it is to massively disrupt logistic chains. What do you think shipping 100 million plus vaccines a month that require specialty refrigeration and dry ice will do to the supply of dry ice in Nigeria or Albania? Or the US for that matter? How many of those dry ice shipping containers does Pfizer have? How quickly can they be manufactured?

How many of those dry ice shipping containers does Pfizer have? How quickly can they be manufactured?

That's a big issue. The N95 mask shortage demonstrates that the US manufacturing industry has far less surge capacity for simple items than previously thought.

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