Intramuscular Vaccine Injection Protects Lungs, Not Upper Airways

[Uniformed_ReRe]

I stumbled on an interesting article:

A snort or a jab? Scientists debate potential benefits of intranasal Covid-19 vaccines
https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/10/covid-intranasal-vaccines/

Vaccines that are injected into arm muscles aren’t likely to be able to protect our nasal passages from marauding SARS-CoV-2 viruses for very long, even if they are doing a terrific job protecting lungs from the virus. If we want vaccines that protect our upper respiratory tracts, we may need products that are administered in the nose — intranasal vaccines.

Some immunology basics would be helpful to understand the issues at stake here.

SARS-2 attacks us via the respiratory tract, with the resulting infections causing no symptoms in some people, mild to moderate cold and flu-like symptoms in others, and severe, life-threatening illness in the lungs of others.

Vaccines that are injected into the arm have done a spectacular job at preventing severe disease and death. But they do not generate the kind of protection in the nasal passages that would be needed to block all infection. That’s called “sterilizing immunity.”

I didn’t know about this. It might explain why vaccinated people can still get breakthrough infections, but they are rarely severe.

 

[gator1776]

I stumbled on an interesting article:

A snort or a jab? Scientists debate potential benefits of intranasal Covid-19 vaccines
https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/10/covid-intranasal-vaccines/




I didn’t know about this. It might explain why vaccinated people can still get breakthrough infections, but they are rarely severe.

I’ve always preferred a shot to the intranasal vaccines. And currently I don’t think we have any internasal vaccines but maybe there’s some in development. We do have internasal influenza vaccine.