CHICAGO — Pfizer's first 'mass air shipment' of its COVID-19 vaccines arrived at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago over the weekend, NBC Chicago reports.
Citing a source, the TV station reports that United Airlines flew a chartered flight from Brussels to the U.S. with the vaccine.
United didn't confirm any details, but said in a statement that "United Cargo established a COVID readiness task team earlier this summer to support a vaccine distribution effort on a global scale."
Pfizer requested emergency use approval from the FDA earlier this month after it found the vaccine to be 95 percent effective.
CDC advisors plan to meet this Tuesday to vote on who in the country should be first to get the vaccine.
It remains unclear how many doses of the vaccine were on board when the plane landed in Chicago, according to the report from NBC Chicago.
As part of Pfizer's colossal effort to distribute doses of its COVID-19 vaccine across the country, the pharmaceutical corporation intends to in part use its distribution facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. to store and ship the vaccine to where it is needed, as TMJ4 News previously reported.
Pfizer Global confirmed to TMJ4 News in an email Thursday that the company plans to ship most of the doses from its facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan to where they are needed. But they will also rely on an existing distribution center in Pleasant Prairie to store doses, and that those doses will have their own designated part of the country from which the facility will ship them to.