When the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Nova Scotia on December 15, 2020, it was a milestone day for the province that offered the first optimistic glimpse of life after COVID-19.
The vaccine rollout is expected to take several months. The method involves a phased approach that first prioritizes delivering vaccines to health-care workers who are directly involved in the front-line COVID response.
However, before anyone rolled up their sleeves, the province needed to solve a seemingly simple question: Where would the vaccine be stored?
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19, one of the two vaccines being used in Nova Scotia, must be stored in an ultra-cold freezer at temperatures between -80掳C and -60掳C. For perspective, the coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada was -63 掳C in Snag, Yukon back in 1947. With provinces across the country scrambling to procure freezers that could meet these requirements, the government of Nova Scotia turned to the Life Sciences Research Institute (LSRI) at AV俱乐部 to be one of Nova Scotia鈥檚 ten cold storage sites.
A quick turnaround
, associate dean of research for the , remembers checking his email on December 1, 2020, to learn that planning was underway to receive the first test shipment in only one week.
While in fact several labs in the medical school鈥檚 Tupper Building and LSRI are 
equipped with an ultra-cold freezer, many of them were already being used for critical and time-sensitive research projects. Despite this, Dr. McLeod points to the research community鈥檚 selflessness as he worked through the process of finding a freezer.
鈥淎ll of the researchers involved have been very helpful and understood how important this was,鈥� says Dr. McLeod. 鈥淐redit to the researchers for being so accommodating. A lot of them even offered the freezers in their own labs.鈥�
After a long day of gathering information and taking stock of what was available, it was determined that a vacant lab in the LSRI had a freezer that met the exact requirements and could store over 100,000 doses of the vaccine. Not only did the freezer satisfy the storage demands, but it was also attached to backup generators and located close to two hospitals, making it the ideal location for a vaccination clinic.
A plan for everything
After securing the site, Dr. McLeod tapped Building Services Manager, Paul Bourgeois, to oversee the logistics of effective storage and continuous temperature monitoring of the vaccine.
鈥淭hings were moving in a hurry,鈥� Bourgeois recalled.
Before the vaccine could be shipped, both he and Dr. McLeod were required to complete webinars provided by the (PHAC) and Pfizer on how to properly handle and receive the vaccine.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty amazing how quickly PHAC rolled out the teaching materials at every level,鈥� says Dr. McLeod. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been very comprehensive to make sure people are well informed and educated about the vaccine.鈥�
The vaccine is shipped around the world in a specially designed, temperature-controlled thermal container that uses dry ice to maintain the recommended storage temperature conditions.
鈥淭here is a device inside every container that monitors the temperature 24 hours a day,鈥� says Bourgeois. 鈥淲hen we open the container and stop the temperature recorder, we get an indicator that the shipment has maintained the proper ultra 鈥搇ow temperature throughout its journey from Belgium to us here in Halifax.鈥�
Once the vaccine is unpacked and safely stored in the ultra-cold freezer, there is also a procedure to send the expensive shipping container back to Pfizer to be reused for a future shipment.
鈥淲e take the dry ice out and a lot of times we give it to different researchers who can use it their labs,鈥� says Bourgeois. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 been one of the added benefits.鈥�
Experience of a lifetime
With news of Nova Scotia receiving its largest shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine to date, and larger shipments expected, the handling and storage of the vaccine has become a well-oiled machine, one that was recognized by the Honourable Leo Glavine, then-minister of health and wellness, in a letter to Deep Saini, AV俱乐部's president.
In the letter, Glavine specifically highlighted the exceptional work of Dr. David Anderson, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. McLeod, and Mr. Bourgeois, for their willingness to allow the LSRI to be used to store the vaccine, noting that 鈥淭his single act brought hope to Nova Scotians that COVID-19 would come to an end.鈥�
For Bourgeois, playing a role in ending a global pandemic was the furthest thing from his mind when he got word back in December that AV俱乐部 would be storing the vaccine.
鈥淚鈥檓 really glad I had the opportunity to go through this. There have been some challenges, but it鈥檚 been rewarding and I鈥檓 just really happy to be involved,鈥� says Bourgeois. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty cool.鈥�