What Is A Cold Chain? And Why Do So Many Vaccines Need It?
Many of the coronavirus vaccines like it cold. Really cold. Sub-zero cold. Why is this the case? And how is the world handling this frigid requirement?
Vaccines are like milk. Both make us stronger, but if stored at the wrong temperature, they spoil.
The reason? At least in the context of COVID-19, shots rely on messenger RNAs — particles, which in oversimplified terms, carry the key instructions for teaching your immune system to fight the coronavirus. mRNAs are fickle things, or as chemists would describe them, they're "unstable." They break down quickly unless adequately protected from those pesky enzymes which eat away at them.
Enter cold storage.
As countries race — and — to deliver mass inoculations in far-reaching corners of the globe, the most?
