Jab 'n' spray, bugs away

[bennevisplace]

Maybe this is how we'll be dealing with Covid and its successors in the future theconversation.com/covid-n...

[neurodervish]

Personally, I'm hopeful about these. With so many antivaxxers running around (especially in the US), my hope is that nasal sprays may be more acceptable to the demographic who continues to spread infection and disinformation. I'm only as safe as they are, but they're not safe.

Btw, have you seen this article about another Covid nasal spray? news.cornell.edu/stories/20... They're still working on funding for this one, but it looks like a great idea to me.

Wouldn't it be nice to spray some protection up your nose before shopping, flying, or attending a public event? If Covid is going to become endemic, I'd like to be able to buy an over the counter spray that would give me enough protection to get me thru a short-term threat.

[Mrsminton in reply to neurodervish]

"With so many antivaxxers running around (especially in the US), my hope is that nasal sprays may be more acceptable to the demographic who continues to spread infection and disinformation."

Please see the following world-wide vaccination tracker from the New York Times and you will see that the US is above-average in the percentage of individuals who have received one dose, and in-line with the average of world-wide fully vaccinated.

nytimes.com/interactive/202...

[neurodervish in reply to Mrsminton]

I'm unable to access the NY Times link, but agree that the US stacks up on initial vaccines worldwide. But given the waning efficacy of vaccines after 3 months or so, the US is less prepared. As of May. 25, only 46.6% of the US has been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC's data.

And altho the US spends twice as much as comparable countries on healthcare, we have had the highest global death rate from Covid.

I live in a rural area of the US, where a majority have refused to wear masks or get vaccinated. One antivaxxer friend, whose brother died of Covid, claimed the hospital killed him, not Covid. As they say, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”

Covid death rate in the US May 2022

[Mrsminton in reply to neurodervish]

Here is a screen shot from the CDC website - it shows 66.6% of US population is fully vaccinated as of May 26, 2022. I’m not sure where you pulled your statistic of 46.6% fully vaccinated but this is the most recent data on the CDC site. Your statistic could be classified as “disinformation.” I point this out only to try to illuminate our own biases and encourage everyone to work to overcome them and instead look at the actual facts. As for your rural area, do you know for a fact that the “majority have refused to . . . get vaccinated” or is this just an assumption you are making? Are there actual statistics that have been reported for your community? Do you see how easy it is to give in to personal biases when you may not have all the facts at hand? I wish you and everyone on this forum the best and don’t intend to offend or come across as overly aggressive.

covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tr...

CDC COVID VAX DATA 5.26.22

[neurodervish in reply to Mrsminton]

Thanks for the link. I was probably too quick in grabbing the first stat I found on Google that referenced the CDC. It was certainly not an attempt to “spread disinformation.” The point of my comment was to validate Bennevis' post about therapeutic nasal sprays. Again, given the waning efficacy of Covid vaccines within 3 months (especially against omicron), they will only get us so far. My hope is that nasal sprays may offer a viable solution.

People in rural areas really are less likely to wear masks or get vaccinated. “Covid is killing rural Americans at twice the rate of people in urban areas: The pandemic is devastating rural America, where lower vaccination rates are compounding the already limited medical care.” nbcnews.com/health/health-n...

Further: “Rural residents are significantly less likely to have worn a mask in public, sanitized their home or workplace with disinfectant, avoided dining at restaurants or bars, or worked from home.” ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

If I have a personal bias, it has developed over 2 years of being called a "sheep" for wearing a mask, and yelled at while trying to shop. More than a million Americans have died of Covid—among them some of my friends and neighbors. It breaks my heart.

Honestly, this is not a conversation I ever thought I'd have on HU. I cannot presume to know what you've been through, nor lecture you on how you should respond to it. I wish you only the best.

[KatieBlue in reply to neurodervish]

And grimmer still on the existing covid vaccine front , the loss of almostninety percent of its potency

against Omicron after two weeks. Unsure of how those numbers hold up against the sublineages.

forbes.com/sites/williamhas...

Screenshot from Forbes article by William Haseltine.

[KatieBlue]

Scientists are also looking into the possibility of a nasal covid vaccine;

twitter.com/erictopol/statu...

scientificamerican.com/arti...

hhmi.org/news/nasal-spray-b...

And one professor, Akiko Isawaki (and her lab) who are doing a lot of research into nasal vaccines for covid (mucosal booster strategy):

twitter.com/virusesimmunity...

[neurodervish in reply to KatieBlue]

Thanks for sharing these links. They give me hope. If not for me directly, then for the general public (by which I still benefit 😀😀).

I especially liked Dr. Topal's tweet, as well the Scientific American article he referenced. It really spells things out. "To block infections entirely, scientists want to deliver inoculations to the site where the virus first makes contact: the nose. People could simply spray the vaccines up their nostrils at home, making the preparation much easier to administer. There are eight of these nasal vaccines in clinical development now and three in phase 3 clinical trials, where they are being tested in large groups of people."

Dr. Eric Topal tweet on containing Covid via mucosal immunity.

[Eucalyptus22]

I love the sound of this, especially the words prophylactic against all variants that might come. In Israel they developed the nasal Taffix spray which they claim works well. I used it when I had to go to the dentist and doctors. However, the powder tickles and makes you sneeze so potentially counter productive.

[lexie]

Ok, but what about mouth breathers? I had chronic, recurring tonsilitis until age 19 when those and adenoids were removed. It was an effort to retrain myself to breathe through the nose and took a year. Granted, I am no longer in that group but see others.

[neurodervish in reply to lexie]

The short answer is that the omicron variant is attacking the nasal areas instead of the lungs. I think mouth breathing may involve the lungs more, which was how the delta variant spread. Maybe it's a numbers game, since a majority of people breathe thru their noses? (Not sure sure where the throat fits into the equation tho.) The omicron variant (now dominant) has been shown to attach itself to the ACE2 receptor, which is found especially on cells in the upper respiratory tract (i.e., the throat and nasal mucosa). The ACE2 receptor is much rarer in lung cells. bihealth.org/en/notices/why...

This article spells it out in a bit more complicated terms:

“The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant has swiftly replaced previously circulating variants, including Delta...

… Omicron possessed about 60 mutations relative to other SARS-CoV-2 variants, and among that, around 32 were present in its spike (S) protein region. These mutations enhance the affinity of the Omicron variant to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor in hosts, explaining the superior multiplication of Omicron versus Delta in the upper respiratory tract.

Further, these mutations confer substantial SARS-CoV-2 infection/vaccination-induced antibody evasion for Omicron. While SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies protect vaccinated adults from severe COVID-19, lessons learned from other mucosal diseases show that mucosal antibodies, particularly secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA), are the most effective at blocking the transmission of respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV-2.” [bolded sections are my emphasis]

news-medical.net/news/20220...