Wednesday, Shanghai, China began delivering an inhalable COVID-19 vaccination, which appears to be a world first.
The vaccine, a mist that is inhaled via the mouth, is being provided for free to previously vaccinated individuals as a booster dosage, according to a notice made on the city’s official social media account.
Easy-to-administer needle-free vaccines may convince those who dislike needles to get vaccinated, as well as aid boost vaccination in developing nations.
China does not require vaccinations, but it wants more people to receive booster doses before it lifts its draconian pandemic restrictions, which are stifling the economy and becoming increasingly out of step with the rest of the globe.
People at a community health center may be seen in a video posted by a Chinese state-run media agency inserting the short nozzle of a translucent white cup into their mouths. According to the accompanying text, after carefully breathing, a person held his breath for five seconds, and the total procedure took 20 seconds.
A resident of Shanghai stated in the video, “It felt like sipping a cup of milk tea,” comparing the experience to consuming the beverage. When I inhaled it, it tasted slightly sweet.
A vaccine administered orally could also protect against the virus before it spreads to the rest of the respiratory system, but this would depend in part on the size of the droplets, according to one specialist.
Dr. Vineeta Bal, an immunologist from India, explained that larger droplets would train the body’s defenses in the mouth and throat, whereas tiny droplets would reach deeper into the body.
In September, Chinese regulators authorized the use of the vaccine as a booster. It was created by the Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Cansino Biologics Inc. as an aerosol variant of the company’s one-shot adenovirus vaccine, which employs a relatively innocuous cold virus.
Cansino has said that clinical studies for the inhaled vaccine have been completed in China, Hungary, Pakistan, Malaysia, Argentina, and Mexico.
In India, regulators have approved a needle-free nasal vaccine, but it has not yet been implemented. The vaccine, created in the United States and licensed to the Indian vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech, is administered through nasal spray.
According to the World Health Organization, over a dozen nasal vaccinations are undergoing global testing.