WHO says newly approved nasal vaccines could help control COVID

By AFP 7 September 2022, 7:25 pm Edit

An employee of Bharat Biotech speaks on a mobile phone inside a bus on the outskirts of Hyderabad, India, January 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File)

Nasal COVID-19 vaccines could help to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control, the World Health Organization says, after homegrown products were approved in India and China.

The WHO welcomes the new front in the fight against the virus — but also said it wanted to see the data behind the vaccines, to assess whether to approve them.

China on Sunday launched the world’s first inhalable COVID vaccine, Convidecia Air, which is made by CanSino Biologics and administered through a nebulizer.

And India approved a nasally-administered COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use on Tuesday, developed by Bharat Biotech.

WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan says nasal vaccines generated immune response in the respiratory mucosa in the lungs.

“You’re generating the first line of defense at where the virus enters and causes a lot of damage,” he explains.

In doing so, nasal vaccines could potentially prevent a person from being infected and passing the virus on.