New Nasal Vaccines for COVID, Flu and RSV in development

[hotblack]

An interesting article on nasal vaccine development, how they work and may offer better protection
https://www.scientificamerican.com/...ion-from-covid-flu-and-more-no-needle-needed/

 

[Sasha]

Thanks for posting, @hotblack. The article is over my head but some strong (and interesting) claims are being made:

Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University who is working to develop a nasal vaccination for COVID, sees two major potential benefits to nasal immunity in addition to better, faster, more localized protection. First, attacking the virus in the nose could prevent the disease from being transmitted to others by reducing the amount of virus that people breathe out. And second, Iwasaki says, the spray may limit how deeply the infection moves into the body, so “we believe that it will also prevent long COVID.”

When nasal vaccines have been discussed before, I've seen optimistic claims dismissed but I don't know enough about the science to make a judgement. I'd love to believe the claims - I'm still shielding, and will be for the rest of my life if no better protection against Covid becomes possible.

I'm assuming that the Long Covid that Iwasaki mentions is the non-ME/CFS, organ-damage type. They seem to be two different things.

But I wonder if nasal vaccines could lead to R dropping below 1 and Covid being eradicated?

 

[hotblack]

But I wonder if nasal vaccines could lead to R dropping below 1 and Covid being eradicated?

It certainly would be great to see.

I know a nasal version of the AstraZeneca vaccine was a flop despite early hopes so am interested in how these efforts develop
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(22)00480-7/fulltext

I’m also unsure on the Long Covid claims. As we all know there’s so much uncertainty and misunderstanding over that even within medical/research communities.

So I don’t know, maybe eradication is optimistic, we rarely manage that deliberately AFAIK. But perhaps significant reduction of transmission combined with evolution of the virus into something some of us can be less fearful of doesn’t seem unrealistic? We can certainly hope!

 

[Sasha]

evolution of the virus into something some of us can be less fearful of doesn’t seem unrealistic?

I remember reading early on that that wouldn't be expected to happen but I can't remember why!