Local airport speaks about COVID-19 vaccine delivery

This weekend, Fedex and UPS began shipping over 1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to hospitals, clinics and other distribution sites across the country. Twin States News was not able to speak with either company on distribution, but spoke to a local airport on possible shipment.

The State of Mississippi is preparing for shipments of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Tom Williams of the Meridian Regional Airport says they are not expecting a shipment of vaccines, but are prepared if needed.

“A lot of the air cargo in Mississippi comes and goes through Jackson or New Orleans, Mobile, or Memphis,” said Tom Williams, President of the Meridian Airport Authority. “Most of the air cargo in Mississippi coming and going in Mississippi now is flown to a major airport and dirven of several hundred miles outside of that radius. Because it’s really all about time--meeting a deadline and meeting a schedule.”

During distribution, the vaccine must be stored at -70 degrees celsius in a sealed box with dry ice. Fedex and UPS have been enlisted to transport the thermal shippers.

“I understand that shipping the vaccine, there are a lot of temperature requirements and that they’ve already got containers that will accommodate that temperature without a problem--both on the airplane and in transport after that,” said Williams. “So generally the carrier is the airline, UPS, or Fedex would already have that type of container and then would handle to rest of the delivery out into the communities.”

Williams says they are still waiting to see if employees from the airport would be considered as essential workers to receive the vaccine early.

“We don’t know yet whether that means if you work in an airport and therefore have a lot of exposure in the general public, if you have a higher priority of the vaccine or not,” said Williams.