With the supply of AstraZeneca vaccine uncertain, the provincial government announced Thursday that its launching a pilot project at 16 pharmacies in Peel and Toronto during which pharmacists will administer Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine instead.
Using an mRNA vaccine such as Pfizer instead of a viral vector vaccine like AstraZeneca presents additional challenges, the medical officer of health for Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Public Health said.
For one thing, AstraZeneca is sturdier.
Pfizers a little more delicate product, Dr. Kieran Moore explained Thursday during a media call. Im very confident they have the skill sets as pharmacists to prepare it, but we had to go through some training, and Im sure they will, and Id happily invite them to our clinics where we have pharmacy assistants doing some of this work along with our nurses.
The Pfizer vaccine must be stored between -20 C and -80 C, Moore said, and a diluent must be added once its thawed.
And you cant shake an mRNA vaccine. Its very delicate. You dont want to break any of the components of the strands of mRNA because then its not going to be effective, he said.
Pfizer needs 10 gentle swirls and cant be flicked.
And every five-dose vial has to be stretched into a half-dozen doses.
It has to be given in doses to six people at a time, basically, he said, because it cant stand at a table for many, many hours at room temperature.
