First Anti-Covid Nasal Vaccine Approved - China's CanSino

Chinese authorities have approved the world's first covid vaccine in the form of an aerosol mist, according to Business Insider. The manufacturer, CanSino, will produce booster doses. The press release promises powerful immune protection from a single breath.

This is the world's first alternative to injectable vaccines against covid. It contains the same ingredients as CanSino's injectable vaccine, also used in China, but with a nebulizer, the liquid turns into an aerosol. The CanSino vaccine belongs to vector vaccines, like, for example, the Russian Sputnik. Its mechanism of action is that a genetically engineered adenovirus (adenoviral vector) delivers a gene that encodes the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to human cells, and thanks to the information received, the immune system learns to recognize the real virus.

According to the WHO, a single dose of the CanSino vaccine given by injection is approximately 92% effective in preventing severe illness caused by COVID-19 and 58% effective in complete prevention. Clinical trials of the nasal vaccine as a booster (after a single dose of the vaccine) have shown that its effectiveness is approximately equal to that of two doses of the vaccine.

The release of nasal vaccines is a fairly common practice, for example in the case of influenza vaccines. This form is good primarily for children. However, statistics show that myst vaccines are not always as effective as injections. Whether the Chinese manufacturer's aerosol provides sufficient protection against covid, time will tell.