Can India Afford The Pfizer Vaccine?

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine needs to be stored at -8⁰⁰C, which is tricky. This is not an insurmountable problem, but it poses extra logistical challenges.

It requires specialist equipment known as “ultra low temperature freezers”. These are typically found in specialist research facilities or bio-banks.

Governments the world over will now be wondering how many of these freezers they’ll need to buy.

And at a cost of thousands of dollars per unit, along with running costs, the bill could get large very quickly. This kind of financial outlay may also be beyond India’s capacity for its affected millions.

So while it is good news that we may be close to getting the cure we need to put the pandemic behind us, it will be difficult if we cannot get it in time to the people in need.