Why the U.S. Doesn ’t Have a Nasal Vaccine for COVID-19

The U.S. led the world in quickly developing COVID-19 vaccines—one of the few bright spots in the country’s otherwise criticized response. But while injectable vaccines are effective in protecting people from getting sick with COVID-19, they are less able to block infection. In order to put the pandemic behind us, the world will need a way to stop infections and spread of the virus. That’s where a different type of vaccine, one that works at the places where the virus gets into the body, will likely prove useful. Here, though, the U.S. is losing its edge. In September, India approved a nasal COVID-19 vaccine, and in October, China began administering an inhalable one—the world’s first such vaccine against any disease. Both countries conducted their own clinical safety and efficacy tests in humans (but have not yet published the complete and latest results). [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] U.S. researchers have created several nasal vaccines that have been tested in animals, and some—like the booster Dr. Akiko Iwasaki and her Yale University colleagues developed—look promising; their group published encouraging results in the journal Science on Oct. 27. But such vaccines are at least several years away in the U.S. Moving to the next step—human testing—is stalled for several big reasons, including a lack of funding. “There is a lot of science that needs to be done to see if developing mucosal vaccines agai...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news