U.S. officials quarantined several thousand doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine Dec. 16 after an "anomaly" in the transportation process led to the vaccines getting too cold, CNBC reported.
Gen. Gustave Perna, who oversees logistics for Operation Warp Speed, the White House's initiative to speed COVID-19 vaccine and drug development, told reporters that two trays of Pfizer's vaccine that arrived at two locations in California had to be returned to the drugmaker after the temperature somehow fell to minus 92 degrees Celsius, according to CNBC.
Each tray of the vaccine carries at least 975 doses, and the vaccine is supposed to be kept at around minus 70 degrees Celsius.
Mr. Perna told reporters that the vaccines never left the truck they were being shipped in and "We returned them immediately back to Pfizer and we sent immediate shipments to replace those two trays. We’re working with the FDA now, CDC, FDA and Pfizer to determine if that anomaly is safe or not, but we’re taking no chances and we can see that," according to CNBC.
He also said the same thing happened in Alabama with two other trays of Pfizer's vaccine.