United Begins Flying Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine - The Wall Street Journal

Covid-19 vaccine for quick distribution if the shots are approved by regulators, according to people familiar with the matter.

Pfizer’s distribution plan also includes refrigerated storage sites at the drugmaker’s final-assembly centers in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Puurs, Belgium, and expanding storage capacity at distribution sites in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., and in Karlsruhe, Germany, in addition to dozens of cargo flights and hundreds of truck trips each day.

United plans to fly chartered cargo flights between Brussels International Airport and Chicago O’Hare International Airport to support distribution of the vaccine, according to a Nov.

United had sought permission to carry more dry ice than is typically allowed on flights to maintain the extremely low temperatures required to prevent Pfizer’s vaccine from spoiling.

Pfizer designed suitcase-size boxes packed with dry ice to keep its vaccine doses cold, avoiding the larger, temperature-controlling containers used in transportation, giving it more flexibility to ship the vaccines faster