Key TakeawaysThe FDA is allowing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be stored at normal freezer temperatures instead of in ultra-cold freezers.Rural areas and smaller vaccination sites will now have easier access to the Pfizer vaccine.

Key Takeaways

The FDA is allowing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be stored at normal freezer temperatures instead of in ultra-cold freezers.Rural areas and smaller vaccination sites will now have easier access to the Pfizer vaccine.

New guidance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may be stored in standard pharmaceutical freezers for up to two weeks.

Pfizer’s vaccine, which was the first shot to be approved to prevent COVID-19 in the United States, was previously thought to need ultra-cold freezers to keep the vaccine between 112 degrees below zero and 76 degrees below zero. Now, the FDA says that as long as the vials are still frozen, they may be kept intact at “conventional temperatures commonly found in pharmaceutical freezers.”

Once thawed and diluted, the vaccine has the same shelf life of five days before degradation makes it ineffective.

Cold vs. Ultra-Cold

The differentiation between cold and ultra-cold freezers was a severe limitation of the Pfizer vaccine, since in many rural areas, ultra-cold freezers are few and far between. And it’s difficult to transport the vaccine to these rural areas while keeping it extremely cold.

“While mRNA technology isn’t new, this is the first instance of widespread use. Pfizer had thought that you needed extremely cold temperatures to keep the fragile mRNA, which is embedded within a fatty envelope, stable,” Kamitsuka tells Verywell.

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Since the Moderna vaccine uses the same mRNA technology but doesn’t require a deep freeze, there were questions about whether it was necessary for Pfizer. Asha Shah, MD, MS, associate director of infectious diseases at Stamford Health, explains that Pfizer, which was first on the scene, wanted to guarantee that higher temperatures wouldn’t damage the vaccine.

“I think it’s important to be as conservative as possible to maintain the integrity of the vaccine,” she tells Verywell. “As with anything with the vaccine, as we do more, we learn more. That’s why it took time to come out with this information.”

Rural Areas Will See the Most Impact

According to Shah, not much will change at large vaccination sites, since most were already using ultra-cold storage. But at more rural sites—or any site without a special freezer—this change means that if there is more Pfizer vaccine supply available than Moderna or Johnson & Johnson at a particular time, they can actually accept it. Until now, smaller vaccination sites without suitable equipment may have had to turn away vaccines that they couldn’t store properly, becoming blockers to the vaccine rollout.

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“The more vaccines we get in arms, the faster we’re going to work our way out of this pandemic,” Kamitsuka says.

What This Means For YouIf you don’t live near a major city, you may feel the impact of this temperature change guidance soon. Without the need for ultra-cold storage, the Pfizer vaccine can have a wider spread and reach places that couldn’t accommodate it before.

What This Means For You

If you don’t live near a major city, you may feel the impact of this temperature change guidance soon. Without the need for ultra-cold storage, the Pfizer vaccine can have a wider spread and reach places that couldn’t accommodate it before.

The information in this article is current as of the date listed, which means newer information may be available when you read this. For the most recent updates on COVID-19, visit ourcoronavirus news page.

1 SourceVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Food and Drug Administration.Coronavirus (COVID-19) update: FDA allows more flexible storage, transportation conditions for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. February 25, 2021.

1 Source

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Food and Drug Administration.Coronavirus (COVID-19) update: FDA allows more flexible storage, transportation conditions for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. February 25, 2021.

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Food and Drug Administration.Coronavirus (COVID-19) update: FDA allows more flexible storage, transportation conditions for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. February 25, 2021.

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