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BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese city of Shanghai began administering an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday in what appears to be a world first.
The vaccine, a mist that is sucked out of the mouth, is presented free of charge as a booster dose for other people already vaccinated, according to an announcement on the city’s official social media account.
Scientists hope that such “needle-free” vaccines will make vaccination more available in countries with fragile physical systems because they are less difficult to administer. They may also convince others who don’t like getting an arm shot to get vaccinated.
China needs more people to receive reminders before easing strict pandemic restrictions that are holding back the economy and desynchronizing with the rest of the world. By mid-October, 90% of Chinese were fully vaccinated and 57% had gained a booster. Shot.
A video posted through Chinese state media online showed others at an online fitness center stuffing the short tip of a translucent white cup into their mouths. The attached text said that after inhaling slowly, other people held their breath for five seconds, with the entire procedure ending in 20 seconds.
“It’s like drinking a cup of milk tea,” a Shanghai resident said in the video. “When I breathed it, it tasted a little sweet. “
The efficacy of needle-free vaccines has not been fully explored. Chinese regulators approved the inhalable vaccine in September, but only as a booster after studies showed it triggered an immune formula reaction in others who had already received two shots of another Chinese vaccine. .
A vaccine taken in the form of a mist can repel the virus before it reaches the rest of the respiratory system, depending in part on the length of the droplets, one expert said.
Larger droplets would bring defenses in certain parts of the mouth and throat, while smaller droplets would penetrate deeper into the body, Dr. Brown said. Vineeta Bal, immunologist in India.
The inhalable vaccine was developed through Chinese biopharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics Inc. As an aerosol edition of the company’s single-injection adenovirus vaccine, which uses an innocent bloodless virus.
The classic single-shot vaccine has been approved for use in more than 10 markets, China, Hungary, Pakistan, Malaysia, Argentina and Mexico. The inhaled edition has been given the green light for clinical trials in Malaysia, according to a Malaysian media report. last month.
Regulators in India have approved a nasal vaccine, a needle-free approach, but it has yet to be implemented. 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, a dozen nasal vaccines are being injected around the world lately.
China has relied on locally developed vaccines, most commonly two inactivated vaccines that have been shown to be effective in preventing death and serious illness, but less than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in preventing the spread of the disease.
The Chinese government also did not impose vaccination: entering a building or other public requires a negative COVID-19 test, not evidence of vaccination. And the country’s strict “zero-COVID” technique means that only a small proportion of the population has been inflamed and built immunity in this way, compared to other positions.
As a result, it is unclear to what extent COVID-19 would spread if the limitations were lifted. So far, the ruling Communist Party has shown no signs of softening the “zero COVID” policy, temporarily moving to limit and impose lockdowns even when few cases are discovered.
On Wednesday, authorities ordered the lockdown of another 900,000 people in Wuhan, the city where the virus was first detected in late 2019, for at least five days. In remote Qinghai province, urban districts in Xining City have been closed since last Friday. .
In Beijing, Universal Studios said it would close its hotels and attractions “to comply with the prevention and control of the pandemic. “The city of more than 21 million people reported 19 new cases in the past 24 hours.
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This story has been corrected to imply that CanSino’s single-injection vaccine has been approved for use in more than 10 markets, not that the inhaled edition has finished clinical trials at those locations.
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Associated Press Aniruddha Ghosal in New Delhi and video maker Olivia Zhang in Beijing contributed to the report.
Ken Moritsugu, Associated Press