The Chinese city of Shanghai began administering an inhalable vaccine against Covid-19 on Wednesday, in what appears to be the first such inoculation in the world.
The vaccine, which is inhaled through the mouth, is offered free of charge as a booster dose to previously vaccinated people, according to an announcement published Wednesday by an official social media account of the municipality.
This inoculation is intended to persuade those who are reluctant to get vaccinated and to expand vaccination in poor countries, as it is easier to administer.
Vaccination against Covid-19 is not mandatory in China, but the country intends to increase the proportion of the population that received booster doses, before relaxing epidemic prevention measures. The Asian country maintains a zero tolerance strategy with the disease.
A video released by Chinese state media shows people at a community health center putting the tip of a translucent container into their mouths. The text accompanying the images indicates that after inhaling slowly, the person should hold their breath for five seconds. In total, the procedure takes 20 seconds to complete.
“It was like drinking a glass of tea with milk,” a Shanghai resident said in the video.
A respiratory vaccine can also prevent the virus before it reaches the rest of the respiratory system, although this depends in part on the size of the droplets, an expert was quoted as saying by local media. Larger droplets would train defenses in parts of the mouth and throat, while smaller droplets would penetrate deeper into the body, he described.
Chinese regulators approved the vaccine for use as a booster in September.
The inoculation was developed by Chinese drugmaker Cansino Biologics Inc. as an aerosol version of the same company’s single-dose vaccine, which uses a relatively harmless virus.
Cansino said the inhaled vaccine has completed clinical trials in China, Hungary, Pakistan, Malaysia, Argentina and Mexico.
Regulators in India have approved a nasal vaccine, another needle-free approach, but it is not yet being used. The vaccine, developed in the United States and licensed by Indian vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech, is injected into the nose.
According to the World Health Organization, about a dozen nasal vaccines are being tested around the world.
Source: TSF
