The state of Maine needed help from the University of New England and the matter had to be kept strictly confidential.
It was Tuesday, Nov. 17, and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention needed an untold number of ultra-cold freezers by that Friday. An initial shipment of COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer was expected to be delivered to Maine the following Monday and it had to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit).
Delivery of the first 12,675 Pfizer doses was delayed to next week, at the earliest, but UNE is among several Maine colleges and universities that have responded to the agency’s call to action and loaned the now hard-to-find freezers to the statewide vaccine rollout. Read more
