The Vaccine Cold Chain : Everything You Should Know
                     The Vaccine Cold Chain: Everything You 
Should Know 
 
With drug companies producing COVID19 vaccines, the need for transporting the vaccines 
worldwide arises. And that calls for a cold-chain. Know what it is. 
 
With the drug companies' announcement, Pfizer and Moderna, about their COVID19 vaccines 
getting ready for administration to people, a sign of relief has swept among people across the 
globe. Simultaneously, the announcement also has brought to the fore the need for a cold 
chain.  
 
Let us explore what a cold vaccine chain is all about--what is it and how it works. 
 
What is a Vaccine Cold Chain? 
A vaccine is a biological substance that needs careful handling to preserve its effectiveness. In 
the preservation process, temperature plays a critical role. If you store a vaccine at an 
inappropriate temperature, either too cold or too hot, the vaccine's active ingredients can 
degrade, resulting in the vaccine becoming ineffective.  
 
After production, vaccines need to be transported across the world, maintaining the proper 
temperature environment to preserve their potency.  
 
You can regard the cold vaccine chain as a network of cold rooms, freezers, cold boxes, and 
carriers that keep vaccines at the right temperature during the transportation from the 
production facility to the syringe. 
 
Keeping vaccines in cold environments during transportation might sound simple, but that is 
not so. It presents many challenges. And if you transport vaccines to remote or rural areas 
where there is unreliable electricity, the challenges will only intensify. 
 
It would help if you overcame the challenges by integrating technology into your logistics 
system, such as an ultra-low temperature freezer, for the apparent reason. 
 
 
 
Why COVID19 Vaccines Need a Cold Chain? 
 
The COVID19 vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna have accentuated the need for a cold chain more 
than ever. According to the companies, Pfizer's vaccine has to be kept at minus 70 degrees C, 
and Moderna's vaccine requires a temperature of minus 20 degrees C. So, healthcare facilities 
have to invest in an ultra-low temperature freezer to store the vaccines effectively. 
 
The Associated Challenges 
The cold chain poses numerous challenges. Getting the necessary electricity is one of the 
challenges.  
 
Ultra-cold temperature freezers require more power than the standard refrigerators. And in hot 
places, the power requirement is even more. If the power grid is unreliable, then the challenges 
will intensify. In such a case, installing generators is the only answer. 
 
With the pressing need to distribute the highly temperature-sensitive COVID19 vaccines, it is 
now the time to increase everything associated with the cold chain, from cold chain capacity to 
logistics coordination.  
 
There needs to be the assurance of having enough capacity to keep the new vaccines, 
preserving their potency. 
 
The existing ultra-cold chain is of far-less capacity to handle the large scale COVID19 vaccine 
distribution. As such, the ability has to be increased to actuate the vaccine distribution across 
the globe. It is challenging but not impossible.  
 
Time is the next challenge in COVID19 vaccine distribution. Typically, the journey from the 
production facility to the healthcare facility can take more than a month. The distribution has to 
be compressed down to less than a month. The governments also have less time to equip 
health centers with ultra-cold chain equipment. 
 
But, the challenge will have to be dealt with prudence. And the right way is an excellent level of 
collaboration. Apart from the cold-chain equipment, human beings are also part of the cold-
chain, and they have to work together to do away with the associated challenges. 
 
What is an Ultra-Low Temperature Freezer? 
As the name suggests, ultra-low temperature freezers are cold-storages that provide freezing 
temperatures. Typically, such freezers have a temperature range of -45 degrees C to -86 
degrees C and are used for storing items that require such minus degree temperature, such as 
drugs, enzymes, chemicals, viruses, bacteria, cell preparations, vaccines, and tissue samples, 
etc. 
 
Such freezers come in several designs with varying sizes. Your choice will depend on how much 
storage you need and the available space.  
 
You can choose an upright freezer for frequent use as it allows easy access with adjustable 
interior compartments. It also cools fast after you open and close the door. A chest freezer 
enables you to store for the long term the items you use less frequently. Besides, there are 
table-top and under-bench freezers for you to choose. 
 
Conclusion 
Everybody on the Earth must get a COVID19 vaccine. Scientists' dedicated efforts will do no 
good if the vaccines cannot reach the sections of people who need them. And the pandemic will 
not go away unless the vaccines go everywhere.