COVID Vaccination: WHO says nasal vaccines for children could be 'game changers' | What it is and how effective could it be
World Health Organisation’s Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan said on Sunday that the nasal vaccines for children, whose second and third phase trial is currently ongoing, can be proven game changers in India’s and world’s fight against Covid-19 pandemic. WHO Chief Scientist, however, added that nasal vaccines may not be available by the end of this year amid rising fears of a third wave of Covid-19 hitting children and young adults in particular.
What are nasal vaccines?
A nasal vaccine is administered via nasal passage and does not require a syringe. In case of Covis-19, a nasal vaccine is reportedly capable of generating immune responses at the site of infection within respiratory passage starting from nasal airways. In case of children, this is deemed essential for blocking both infection and transmission of COVID-19.
Which nasal vaccines are being developed in India?
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech apart from having developed the Covaxin Covid vaccine, is also developing BBV154 nasal vaccine for children in collaboration with Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM). The first phase trials were reported to have proven successful and the subsequent second and third phase of nasal vaccine’s trials are currently ongoing. Serum Institute of India (SII) is also testing the efficacy of intransal COVI-VAC Covid vaccine in collaboration with New York-based vaccine maker Codagenix.
‘Hopeful about vaccine for Children’: Dr Soumya Swaminathan
The top WHO scientist said that she is very hopeful that ultimately world will have the vaccine for children. “But that’s not going to happen this year, and we should open schools when community transmission is down,” Swaminathan was quoted as saying by CNN-News 18.
Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration gave emergency approval to Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for youngsters aged 12-17. The chief vaccine developer in the US, Pfizer is reportedly planning to seek emergency approval by September for children between the ages of 2 and 11.