Incredible COVID advances - Nasal inoculation? And another vaccine from China
Some say this will be the last pandemic because we have such great incredibly fast mRNA vaccines but, in my opinion they are just silly - we have multiple vaccines for COVID already and 2% of India is vaccinated, closer to 0% in many countries - vaccines aren’t enough.
Still there are fantastic advances, some of which could be critical in the next pandemic - imagine if the vaccine were merely a nasal spray - the next step would be putting it in the air.
Two interesting Nature stories this week.
One, a vaccine which, in mice (wow, imagine trying to get them to take it), both vaccinates against COVID.
You never hear about it but the Chinese CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine is already in use in multiple countries such as the philippines. Imagine how far the U.S. prestige has fallen there.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved a second Chinese vaccine for emergency use. CoronaVac was found to be 51% effective at preventing COVID-19 in late-stage trials, and researchers say it will be key to curbing the pandemic.
This overall protection is lower than that provided by the seven other vaccines already listed by the WHO. But, importantly, trials suggest that CoronaVac — an inactivated-virus vaccine produced by Beijing-based company Sinovac — is 100% effective at preventing severe disease and death.
“CoronaVac will significantly contribute to the global fight against COVID-19 as a safe and moderately effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine,” says Murat Akova, a clinical researcher in infectious diseases at Hacettepe University in Ankara.
Growing importance
CoronaVac’s approval, on 1 June, came about a month after the WHO listed another Chinese vaccine, made in Beijing by state-owned firm Sinopharm, which showed an efficacy of 79% against symptomatic disease”
NASAL SPRAY
Again from this issue of Nature:
“Scientists create a hybrid antibody that can sharply cut the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the lungs of infected mice.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01481-2?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=9e3fbf4d76-briefing-wk-20210604&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-9e3fbf4d76-42945347
