The logistics for the Russian coronavirus vaccine to arrive: difficult communication and a 'question of size'

Irene Hartmann

12/16/2020 12:55

• Clarín.com

• Society

Updated 12/16/2020 1:30 PM

The note is about coronavirus, but let's imagine that what follows is the synopsis of a romantic comedy:

Communication between them is bumpy.

They come from different cultures.

The messages are sometimes misinterpreted, in a relationship, from the beginning, uneven: one seeks and the other is sought.

The "desired", comfortable in his role, asserts the territorial immensity of his ego.

It transmits words by dropper.

The "desiring" despairs.

You need to know details that are denied you.

It will insistently need to know the true size of the package

.

It is not rude:

the package is the vaccine packages

.

The protagonists, the Argentine Government and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), developers of the

Sputnik V

vaccine

against the coronavirus.

As Argentina does not know the size of these packages and expects to receive - at the latest in January - a batch of no less than

10 million doses

, the delayed detail of the volume hinders the design (which, averaging December, should be at hand) of the

logistics strategy

for the doses to reach the country.

This explains why the Minister of Health Ginés González García said on Tuesday, together with his Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires counterparts: “We are doing everything ... but there are variables that are difficult.

We are also having difficulties with airplanes.

It is not so simple".

Beyond these difficulties, government sources told

Clarín

this Wednesday that, in effect, the first game would arrive on December 23.

But, for now, the little that is known about the planned transoceanic logistics is that "

Aerolineas Argentinas

and possibly the international company

DHL will participate,

" reported a senior government source.

"They are showing us papers, but we are reporting a little 

dropper

.

In this (

in terms of the size of the vaccine packages

) they are delayed.

At some point

uncertainty is also

generated

with the quantity

.

We expect it to be 10 million doses, that is, 5 million schemes, but it depends on them.

The demand is phenomenal and they will be delivering slowly.

Not only Russia but other firms as well ”, he detailed.

It is worth noting that the Argentine delegation that at this moment carries out the crucial evaluation of the Russian vaccine is made up mainly of

women of science

: the Secretary of Access to Health, Carla Vizzotti, and four inspectors, on behalf of the ANMAT.

What are they doing there?

"They are

looking at the plants

and evaluating all the technical issues," explained the source, referring to the long-awaited "emergency approval."

At this point, it is convenient to transmit an official clarification:

it is not the ANMAT that will approve the vaccine

(even though it is the only national body with interference in the matter).

“

The emergency approval is made by the Ministry of Health of the Nation

, following a report from ANMAT.

We are waiting for Russia to present the phase 3 clinical trials, which they already presented to the press on Monday, "the source clarified, referring to articles 8 and 9 of

Law 27573

"

on vaccines designed to generate acquired immunity against the Covid-19

”, which somehow, temporarily (for this exceptional situation), gave the Health portfolio an attribution that historically had been the ANMAT. 

Thus, the agency only has the role of "

recommending

"

to the Ministry of Health

the approval (or not) of the vaccine against Covid-19.

Ministerial authorization, at the same time, has its limits: it must be done for

each new batch

that arrives in the country.

“The company will not be given the registration ... they are not vaccines that will be marketed in pharmacies.

Emergency approval must be made with each batch that arrives in Argentina.

It is like this here and around the world ”, he pointed out.

Simultaneous translation

That communication with the Russians "is not easy" was a phrase said several times by the high official source who spoke with

Clarín

.

This sort of "short circuit" in the dialogue is due only in part to the obvious differences with a country that is

significantly geographically and culturally distant

, which makes the entire process for the Russian vaccine to be approved and to reach Argentina more parsimonious.

No less data also influences.

“

There is no 'one' interlocutor

.

There is the Gamaleya center, on the one hand, the Russian Fund, which is the one that sells ... it is not that there is a single reference, "he explained.

But, beyond these difficulties and some communication misunderstandings in the contracture conditions (which persist, even with interpreters and translators here and there), the feeling that is transmitted from the Government is hopeful: “It is marching.

The vaccine is coming.

We are optimistic.

The ANMAT inspectors are happy ”.

It will be a matter of extending patience.

Wait for the details of the "package" and then design the transfer of the boxes.

By the way, how big could they be?

Or what weight?

These are uncertain data, but perhaps the details given by a renowned Argentine doctor living in the United States, after the hospital where she works received the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, serve the imagination.

As is known, this drug requires much colder (about 70 degrees below zero) than Sputnik V (18 below zero).

“The smallest box has 975 doses.

The largest, 5,000 doses, "he said, clarifying:" The UPS postal service has conservative boxes containing 42 pounds (19 kilos) of dry ice, where Pfizer vaccine boxes are accommodated.

So the minimum weight of each box would be between 50-55 pounds (between 22 and 25 kilos).

For a standard transport the dry ice is replaced every 4 days ”.

Then he explained that “all the boxes come with

an electronic thermometer and a GPS tracker

.

Dry ice is super stable.

There cannot be trout maneuvers or human errors, such as a box tipping over, for example, that are not detected ”.

By the way, the official himself had also said a few words about the disappointment that the Government is going through regarding the arrangement with Pfizer: “We made the law at their request.

Be careful, the other firms would also have asked for it.

But they promised in August 3 million doses, that is, 1.5 million schemes, and they were kicking the thing.

They ran the bow to us until today

”.

Look also

Coronavirus: the Russian Sputnik V vaccine would arrive in Argentina on December 23

Fernán Quirós and the lack of data on the Russian vaccine against coronavirus: "There is only journalistic information"