[cwoodward]

There is going to be a huge business in air freighting these vaccines around the world and it looks as though Cathay Pacific is pushing hard for a large chunk of the international business – and seems well placed to do so.

From SCMP
Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific is expanding its cold storage facilities to handle 8.6 million Covid-19 vaccine doses a day, as governments the world over prepare for the most ambitious global inoculation campaign in history.
The new cold storage facility at the city’s airport will enable Cathay to ultimately handle enough of the vital drug to cover in a single day more than half of the vaccine doses already on order by the Hong Kong government, though many of the shots transiting through the city will be shipped to other countries, as the local roll-out is expected to be spread across 2021.
“We have just expanded so [the cargo terminal] can handle an additional 500,000 doses,” the airline said on Friday. “That’s more than 7 million doses, and there will be more cold storage coming online soon. This new cold storage room will be able to handle a further 1.6 million doses.”
Cathay, as the third-largest cargo airline globally, is expected to play a key role in handling and shipping vaccines from its Hong Kong base, the world’s busiest air cargo airport.
Tom Owen, Cathay’s director of cargo, called the task of transporting the coronavirus vaccine around the world one of “the biggest humanitarian missions ever to involve civil aviation”.
The vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech in particular are delicate, and need to be transported at minus 70 degrees, creating a logistical challenge throughout the global supply chain.
Among the issues facing airlines would be the need to carry dry ice, which is essential to maintaining optimum conditions for the vaccines. However, dry ice – which is frozen carbon dioxide – turns into a gas over time, replacing breathable air in the cabin.
Cathay Pacific confirmed it was working with aircraft manufacturers to increase the amount of dry ice it could carry on freighters and cargo-only passenger planes.

[Swissdiver]

It seems there is a (not so) new kid in the block!

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/02/sputnik-v-vaccine-has-916-efficacy-against-symptomatic-covid-russian-trial-suggests

It is much less expensive than the PFE. And it doesn’t have the same massive logistical issues. PFE lost USD 1 at the opening, while the market is rather positive…

[Swissdiver]

Btw, the Swiss government signed two new contracts with, to me, totally unknown companies (Curevac and Novavax). That said, who knew Moderna before the crisis…

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