Photo credit: Mount Sinai Health System

Even before an FDA panel voted to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration authorize emergency use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, Mount Sinai began its preparations for storing and distributing the vaccine.  

“We heard last night that we can expect to receive the drug as soon as this weekend,” Susan Mashni, the president and chief pharmacy officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, said during her visit to the pharmacy at Mount Sinai Queens on Wednesday.

“[Pfizer] want us to make certain that we’ve seen all the videos about how we unload and access the freezer,” Mashni said to a colleague.

Mashni lead the effort to educate pharmacy staff at Mount Sinai Queens to ensure they ready the moment the vaccine arrives. This is because the virus waits for no one, and it has continued to spread across the U.S. over the past several months.

COVID-19 set a new record this week. On Wednesday, 3,100 U.S. deaths were attributed to coronavirus within a 24-hour period.

Officials at Mount Sinai told NY1 that they have a gameplan for getting the vaccine to those who need it most.

Mashni said the plan is to quickly vaccinate "everybody from the ICU, the ER, even folks like environmental services, transport, food services."

Because there isn’t enough of the vaccine for everyone, just yet, pharmacies that do receive doses have to be extra careful to make sure it is stored properly.

“You know, we only have about 90 seconds to unload the box and get it in the freezer,” Mashni said.

The goal for Mount Sinai staff in the pharmacy is to ensure that not a single drop of the vaccine is compromised.

“If you end up defrosting more than you need, you have 5 days to use [it],” said Mashni.

In walking through their plan this early, officials at Mount Sinai hope that they’ll have a plan for everything should any problems arise.