A new type of vaccine could be a game-changer in the fight against COVID-19, but has yet to receive the green light from Canada.
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With the arrival of the Omicron XBB.1.5 variant, scientists believe that Canada should develop a new mucosal vaccine, according to Global News. This new type of vaccine can be inhaled or taken by mouth. According to scientists, this vaccine could significantly prevent the transmission of the virus.
China and India have decided to go ahead with this vaccine. However, it still has not been approved in Canada.
A professor of immunology at McMaster University, Dawn Bowdish, believes that the country should accept this vaccine to hope for a return to normal.
“Until we get vaccines that actually stop transmission, we have to compromise between non-pharmaceutical interventions like mask versus vaccination. If we really want to get back to the life we had before the pandemic, we are going to have to invest in mucosal vaccines,” she argued.
Current vaccines have the consequence of stimulating an immune response, while a mucosal vaccine could stimulate an immune response targeted for the airways, according to the professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa
Marc-Andre Langlois.
He says mucosal vaccines target the virus at its first point of entry – the mouth and nose – and can stop it even before it causes infection or transmission.
“We are really focusing on the entry point, and we really want to try to complement mRNA vaccines with vaccine technology that is almost entirely dedicated to preventing the initial binding of the virus to thereby reduce transmission of the virus,” said he explained.
According to Mr. Langlois, the ignorance of this new vaccine explains why it is not yet offered in Canada.
“We need this type of innovation,” he said. Without that, we cannot win the battle.”