this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
734 points (98.2% liked)

Technology

58135 readers
6093 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Vaccines can be delivered through the skin using ultrasound. This method doesn’t damage the skin and eliminates the need for painful needles. To create a needle-free vaccine, Darcy Dunn-Lawless at the University of Oxford and his colleagues mixed vaccine molecules with tiny, cup-shaped proteins. They then applied liquid mixture to the skin of mice and exposed it to ultrasound – like that used for sonograms – for about a minute and a half.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (28 children)

Sitting for a minute and a half, not including prep and cleanup, or just getting stabbed a little. shrug

Edit: To save the next half dozen people exclaiming "needles!" the trouble. I would refine my point to, "great to have the option but I imagine it as being more of a fallback than the beginning of a new era".

[–] Nathanator@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Maybe one way of looking at it might be : this would be safe enough you could trust people to self-administer, and you could therefore take the professional with the needle out of the equation.

90 seconds of one person's time has got to be better than the quick jab by two people, no?

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Depending on how specific the injection needs to be, there are a number of scenarios in which people can self-administer injections. So, ignoring people who physically can't self-administer, it isn't that dramatic a change.

I can't help but feel that the professional would be even more necessary to administer this correctly and not just waste a treatment/dose doing it wrong, whilst under the illusion that you did it right. Along with the specialised equipment needed for it in the first place. Needles and doses at least are pretty easily self-contained and if it is suitable for self application just "pointy end goes in fat bit of you".

Naturally it's early days, so it'll be fascinating to see how this develops.

[–] Nathanator@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I agree! Auto injectors aren't cheap compared to ye olde trusty ampule and syringe, and this might push the costs towards the higher end again. I can see a kids-and-the-latex-allergic edge case scenario.

Can't wait to see what develops 😄

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (25 replies)