On a Monday in early November, Associate Professor of Biology Brett Huggett was listening in on the state鈥檚 daily COVID-19 briefing, when a term used by Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, caught his attention: ultra-cold storage.
That day, Nov. 9, Pfizer had just announced extremely positive findings from its early analysis of its coronavirus vaccine. And already, Shah was planning, in what Mainers had come to know as his cautiously optimistic way, to be ready if the vaccine was authorized for use.
鈥淎s you note,鈥� Shah said to one reporter during the briefing. 鈥淚t does require ultra-cold storage.鈥� Minus 80 degrees Celsius, to be precise, or minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit.
Many of the other vaccines coming down the pike required cold storage as well, so Shah and his colleagues at Maine CDC and at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services had already been in touch with Maine hospitals small and large, done an inventory, and found that the grand total in the state was five hospitals with such ultra cold freezers.
The doctor didn鈥檛 say it, but that鈥檚 five hospitals spread out across a state of 35,385 square miles. The math wasn鈥檛 great. Central Maine Medical Center had one of them in its research department but it was small. 鈥淪mall is a kind word,鈥� said Bruce Campbell 鈥�76, director of pharmacy at the Lewiston hospital. 鈥淚t was tiny. Two cubic feet.鈥�
As Shah spoke, Huggett thought about his plant samples, nestled in a So-Low ultra-cold freezer in Carnegie Science Hall, The freezers aren鈥檛 cheap, usually $10,000 or more, Huggett says, but at colleges and universities where scientific research is a core component, they鈥檙e 鈥渦biquitous.鈥澛�
COVID-19 vaccines arrive at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center on Dec. 15, 2020. Bruce Campbell ’76 (in gray suite and tie), director of the pharmacy at Central Maine Medical Center, helps out. The two hospitals are coordinating on the vaccination effort.
Shah told another reporter a tricky thing about the Pfizer vaccine. If it came 鈥� that is, if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it 鈥� the vaccine would arrive in big batches, 975 doses in all.
鈥淣ow we have an additional question,鈥� Shah said. 鈥淣ot just whether you have an ultra-cold freezer, but how much space do you have in it? How much can you free up and so forth.鈥�
鈥淏asically I said, 鈥楪eoff, there鈥檚 a need for negative-80 freezers, and I have one that could be freed up completely.鈥欌��
Huggett had just in the journal Trees. He and five other scientists, including one of his former students, Emma Dunn 鈥�17, had been studying the impacts of a fungal pathogen on the Eastern white pine, specifically needle damage and chronic defoliation that already had slowed growth rates in this classic Maine tree.
But what the researchers were focusing on was the impact the defoliation had on the trees鈥� ability to store non-structural carbohydrates in stems, root, and foliar tissues, and they鈥檇 discovered that the trees had prioritized storage over secondary growth.
That鈥檚 where the freezers were essential. Whisking samples into an ultra-cold freezer preserves a plant until samples could undergo chemical analyses. And by November 2020, any excess sample material Huggett still had stashed in the freezer was ready to be relocated to a smaller freezer.
Moreover, Huggett wasn鈥檛 using 乐播传媒鈥� only freezer, there were others in biology as well as some in the chemistry and neuroscience departments.
Huggett emailed Geoff Swift, vice president for finance and administration. 鈥淏asically I said, 鈥楪eoff, there鈥檚 a need for negative-80 freezers within the state of Maine and I have one that could be freed up completely,鈥欌�� Huggett recalls.
鈥淚t might have taken me a full 30 seconds to say, after Geoff said, 鈥楥an you use one of those things?鈥� for me to say, 鈥業鈥檓 in the car.鈥欌��
Swift took that idea and reached out to the natural science faculty and staff. After assessing what was available, he invited representatives from neighboring Central Maine Medical Center and St. Mary鈥檚 Regional Medical Center to come see what 乐播传媒 could share, five freezers in all 鈥� and assess what would be suitable.
At Central Maine Medical Center, Bruce Campbell had been presuming he鈥檇 have to make do with the two cubic foot ultra-cold freezer he had on hand. Nationally, demand for new units has outstripped supply. 鈥淚f we couldn鈥檛 prove that we had the storage ability, then the vaccine would, appropriately, go elsewhere.
鈥淚t might have taken me a full 30 seconds to say, after Geoff said, 鈥楥an you use one of those things?鈥� for me to say, 鈥業鈥檓 in the car.鈥欌��
Ultimately Campbell asked for two 乐播传媒 units, a 19-cubic-foot upright from the chemistry department and a 5-cubic-foot chest-style freezer from biology. They were moved from the campus to the medical center earlier this month.
The freezer Huggett had been using for those white pine tree samples went to St. Mary鈥檚 early last week. By this week, the 乐播传媒 units were already being put to use when the two hospitals split a shipment of the Pfizer vaccine. And on Wednesday, Dr. Imad Durra became the first Central Maine Healthcare team member to get the vaccine.
“I love this effort,” says Swift. “The best of quick action by faculty and staff, plus college and community connectivity.” Even the legal part 鈥� drafting documents regarding the loan 鈥� went smoothly. “All the conversations were, ‘This is easy 鈥攚e are friendly parties working for what鈥檚 best. It’s a small town, and we鈥檙e all working together.”
(Also involved in the 乐播传媒 cooperative effort have been faculty members Don Dearborn, Matt C么t茅, and Nancy Koven, and staff members Sonya Locke and Jonathan Witt.)
Campbell was there as a relieved and grateful witness to the first, extremely welcome vaccinations of Central Maine staff. 鈥淚t is palpable, when you are standing here, when you are looking at people standing in line and they are just so happy.鈥�
鈥淭his partnership is one of the things I have been most proud of,鈥� Campbell says.
After the vaccine injection, there鈥檚 a 15-minutes precautionary wait to check for any negative response. As the newly vaccinated staff waited their 15 minutes, Campbell could tell that they were 鈥渏ust sort of reflecting. Their eyes well up.鈥� An anesthesiologist asked Campbell to take a photo of him getting his shot. 鈥淏ecause this is life changing for me,鈥� the anesthesiologist told him.
Campbell is reflecting on the 鈥渢houghtfulness鈥� of the science faculty at 乐播传媒 who were so willing to share, as well as his long relationship with 乐播传媒, dating back to middle school, when 乐播传媒 education students came to his classroom to mentor students. 鈥淭his partnership is one of the things I have been most proud of,鈥� Campbell says.
Across the state, colleges and universities are helping with vaccine storage. Southern Maine Community College, the University of New England, and Colby have all loaned freezers, and Bowdoin, Unity College and the University of Maine system have freezers on standby.
This is the way institutions and people can step up, Huggett says, reflecting on how, early in the pandemic, 乐播传媒 and other Maine colleges helped with the PPE shortage.
鈥淚t was actually last week on the CDC briefing that Dr. Shah was saying that if we want to get through this pandemic, we really need to think about our community and within our community, and act with best practices and concern for those around us.
鈥淢any of us have been constantly thinking about how we can help out through this pandemic,鈥� he added.鈥淭his really seemed like an obvious way in which 乐播传媒 could help.鈥�
