The covid-19 pandemic is still not over. And while injected vaccines provide good protection from severe disease, they don’t stop us from catching the virus or spreading it to others.
Vaccines that you inhale through the nose or mouth, on the other hand, potentially could.
In the last week, regulatory bodies in both India and China have approved inhaled vaccines for covid-19. The companies behind these vaccines say that they’ll boost the immune responses of people who have already been vaccinated. Here’s what we know so far.
AZD1222, developed by the University of Oxford and licenced to AstraZeneca, was among the first vaccines created to protect against COVID-19. A non-replicating viral vector vaccine, it was approved for emergency use in several countries but later put on hold because of links with the formation of dangerous blood clots. While the clinical trials and authorization procedures have received significant press coverage, less has been said about the trailblazing technology that underpins AZD1222 – a modified chimpanzee adenovirus called ChAdOx1.
