RPI offering its freezers to store COVID vaccine

TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is offering its campus freezers to help store the coronavirus vaccine.

The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at -94 degrees F. RPI is offering its campus freezers to area hospitals. Those freezers are used for biological samples, and they can get cold enough to store the vaccine until they’re ready to be used.

“We make no assumptions about that, but we’re here to be helpful if we can be,” RPI Pres. Dr. Shirley Jackson said. “Because we do realize that as a STEM-based institution that there are things that we have the capabilities to do.”

The freezers can also be used to store another potential vaccine made by Moderna, which doesn’t have to be nearly as cold.