Why Covid19 Vaccines need to be kept in Cold?

Hello everyone! This is actually my first science-related post in here, although i have written a bunch when i was on Steemit. Yesterday, i made my first intro post here in the community without much success but that's life

As i mentioned there i bought 1k of Stem and i couldn't be happier with my investment! I was thinking to write something completely different but while i was watching the news, i saw the covid19 vaccines to be held in boxes with a lot of ice ready to be sent to the UK for the first massive vaccination!

So i wondered why these vaccines are kept in such cold temperatures?

The Contestants

To begin with let's start with the company that created the so-called codid19 vaccine, which is about to become one of the most popular vaccines, not out there but in History! The company is named Pfizer and is a well-known pharmaceutical that along with its german partner BionTech made the vaccine!

There is also another strong contestant the name of which is Moderna and along with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases made another promising vaccine.

The Issue

Before i inform you about the big difference between these 2 corporations let me tell you what the issue is and then one thing will lead to another. Both companies' ultimate goal is to sell their vaccine and make the number 1 out there, that's quite logical i assume.

See the thing is that they need to take authorization almost by every country's relevant FDA. In USA, for example, the FDA (*Food and Drug Administration) part that's responsible for vaccines will meet on 10/12/2020 to discuss the request and that meeting will actually be streamed live on their channels and social media.

Now one of the main issues is the distribution channels as well as the storages. You may wonder why so? but it's quite simple. Pfizer's vaccine needs to be kept **at –70° Celsius,** something that means they need specific freezers and shipping containers.

On the other hand, we got Moderna's vaccine that can survive at

-20° Celsius. That means they can keep this vaccine in a standard freezer so it makes the shipping way easier too.

What facing this issue exactly means?

Well, regarding Pfizer which needs more cold, in order to create their own packaging with the specific needs it will only mean it will get more expensive, while Moderna's will most likely be cheaper due to the standard freezer thing.

At this point note that most of the vaccines don't even require any freezing at all but these 2 are different cases, a different case that we gonna explain and understand right away!

The Reason Behind the Cold Temperatures

The answer lies within the messenger RNA (or mRNA) in which the vaccines are based on. To put it as simply as i can, the mRNA is providing our cells with instructions on how to create a covid protein. That protein helps our immune system fight and kick covid19's ass, as should it comes!

Now as you know we got DNA and RNA. DNA is more stable than RNA and that's basically because DNA is missing an oxygen molecule. Cells need proteins to do their job but have to create them from scratch and for that, they need a recipe from DNA storage.

Because the DNA is the big boss and the cells don't wanna hurt their beloved boss they make RNA copies of the recipes they need. Those recipes though are similar to some cryptographic message and stuff that after a while they fade away and lost forever.

Now, this is happening, in order to control the number of proteins made and to do show some enzymes are responsible for this mass destruction. That's where the cold temperatures fit in, trying to slow down that process.

There are other reasons behind as well but it will make the post extremely big so instead, you can read the sources i am gonna provide at the end of my post!

Cyberattacks on Distribution

I won't be saying much about this but IBM found attacks that companies and governments received from unknown hackers. A "smart" thing they did was to attack the distribution channels and by that, they try to hack into the mechanism responsible for the cold and decrease it, basically destroying the vaccine! For more additional info check the sources below!