intranasal vaccines

COVID-19 Intranasal Vaccines: Right on the Nose?

Posted on by Promega

Last updated April 28, 2023

covid-19 intranasal vaccines

COVID-19 is still a global pandemic. Around the world, as of 5:40pm CEST, 26 April 2023, there have been 764,474,387 cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,915,655 deaths, reported to the World Health Organization. As of 24 April 2023, a total of 13,325,228,015 vaccine doses have been administered. The adoption of vaccines worldwide continues to increase, yet periodic spikes and surges in infection rates continue to occur with new SARS-CoV-2 variants, such as that observed in Australia in Jan 2022. Vaccine booster doses provide effective protection against developing severe disease and hospitalization, but vaccine adoption and distribution face ongoing challenges in low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries (1). The development of intranasal vaccines could help alleviate some of the challenges in these areas. Therapeutic interventions for those already infected are in development, with one (Paxlovid) currently available under emergency use authorization (EUA) in the US.

Cumulative COVID-19 statistics by country: WHO COVID-19 Dashboard. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2020. Available online: https://covid19.who.int/ (last cited: April 28, 2023).

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COVID-19 Intranasal Vaccines Revisited: Can They Reduce Breakthrough Infections?

Posted on by Ken Doyle

COVID-19 cases are now being identified primarily among unvaccinated individuals, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, there has been increasing concern about so-called breakthrough infections among fully vaccinated individuals, particularly after the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant.

COVID-19, sars-cov-2

What is a breakthrough infection? The CDC defines it as “the infection of a fully vaccinated person.” The key finding remains that people with breakthrough infections are still far less likely to experience severe COVID-19 symptoms, in contrast with unvaccinated people; hence the importance of vaccination.

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