TUESDAY, Feb. 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) — “The jab” might soon be replaced with something like “the huff” as slang for a COVID-19 vaccine dose.
Some experts believe that an inhaled vaccine could be a checkmate move in the world’s ongoing chess match against COVID-19.
They argue that inhaled vaccines could not only deliver more effective protection, but could do it at a lower dosage and thus make vaccines available for more people around the globe.
“Targeting vaccines to specific anatomic areas of the body where immunity is most important, could provide more durable and extensive protection than injectable vaccines when it comes to respiratory viruses,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in Baltimore.
A newly developed inhaled COVID-19 vaccine just emerged out of Canada, where researchers at McMaster University completed a lab study showing that their new vaccine was safe in mice and produced a robust immune response.
The investigators have now moved their new vaccine to a phase 1 clinical trial, to see if it will boost immunity in healthy adults who’ve already had two shots of a COVID mRNA vaccine.
The Canadian researchers deliver their vaccine through a nebulizer, a device that turns liquid into an aerosol that’s inhaled through the mouth and deep into the lungs.
