NOT A SILVER BULLET
On November 10, even as the world enthused over the possible introduction of a Covid vaccine courtesy US drug major Pfizer and BioNTech, whose mRNA-based vaccine had logged 90 per cent efficacy in Phase 3 trials, many smaller players in India’s challenged health ecosystem wondered if they could ever be a part of the rollout of this vaccine in India. Why? Because most small hospitals—and some larger public hospitals too—usually have cold chain facilities for vaccine storage capable of maintaining temperatures of 2-8 degrees Celsius. The Pfizer vaccine BNT162, however, needs to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius or below to last up
