I’ll start by telling you that as a 41 year old man who is not afraid of a lot of things, I really do not like going to the doctor to get shots. I have also heard that when they give shots in the military, they use some kind of fairly painless air gun device that does not use a needle. Presumably, this is done for all kinds of mass inoculations of the troops. I gather this works by somehow opening up pores in the skin and getting the drugs through.
I have never seen such an airgun used in private healthcare settings, and when I have asked my wife who works in the industry, she seems to think it is because such a device is only economically feasible if you are giving lots of shots of the same thing to lots of people. To this I ask, “then why not give a flu shot this way?” since that seems to fit the criteria. She didn’t have an answer, so I ask the teeming millions. What gives?
If it matters, I remember being told they were using an air gun during the Swine Flu hullabaloo in the late 70s. This was a large space (high school auditorium or something) where lots of people were getting the vaccine.
I looked into this a while back. I believe the answer was that some contagious illnesses were also transferred from patient to patient when those mass inoculations with the air injections were done.
I don’t know if the newer guns are any better now than they were back in the early sixties when I was in the military but those things hurt a lot more than the needles back then.
A lot of the needles used today are much smaller than they used to be and I often can’t even feel a shot now.
Yeah if you flinched they could cut a pretty good gash.
I am surprised they used a gun for the yellow fever shot. As I recall that one was cold and there was a lot of liquid that took some time to inject. Sounds like a recipe for disaster with an air gun.
From everyone that’s ever had an injection by those things, I’ve heard that they hurt a lot more than a needle. And a lot of people get cuts/scars from not having the opening lined up correctly with the skin.
Yeah, I remember those. You got your two cotton balls in one hand, your uniform blouse on the opposite shoulder, blood and innoculant dribbling down your are, good times.
While I think the military did use air guns quite a bit in the past, we have long since gone back to needles. I never saw an air gun in my four years as a medic (06-10).
First off, a jet injector doesn’t open up the pores of the skin; instead, it uses high pressure air to forcefully inject the vaccine right through your skin. IME, it hurts just as much as getting a needle injection.
I got a vaccination via jet injector when I was in the Navy in the early 1990s. Then I heard about the possibility of blood-borne disease transmission from person to person, as well as the chance of laceration if you or the person giving the vaccination were to flinch.
When I raised these concerns the next time I was part of a mass vaccination, I was told that I could always request a needle injection. So that’s what I always did after that.
According the article linked to above, the U.S. military stopped using jet injectors in 1997 due to concerns about blood-borne disease transmission.
1995 got air gun injections in USAF basic training. The guy in front of me had his arm pretty much sliced open when he flinched. Big gush of blood in the process. He had a huge welt on his arm immediately afterwards. I remember it hurting pretty good. No better than a shot. Never seen one of those since.
Thanks for that link Robby. My biggest nightmare is that my doctor is going to randomly tell me I have diabetes one day and need daily insulin injections. That would truly be a Hell on Earth for me given my phobia of needles. It sounds like the technology is improving, and I would take all the bruising and other nasty side effects over a needle any day given the choice. Then the next question is, how do you test your blood without having to prick yourself on the finger? Is there no way to do this with saliva?
Yes, I know I’m a big pussy. Thanks for thinking that
If that diagnosis ever comes down, you might not find it so bad. I’m diabetic and similarly needle-phobic, but it’s just a control issue for me. I can inject myself without hesitation but can’t stand having someone else come at me with a needle. I even flinch when I see someone else getting a shot.
(Oh, and did you say daily? It’ll more likely be 2-5 times daily. Roll up those sleeves.)
Re: glucose testing: Every six months or so I see another article on Engadget announcing a breakthrough regarding this technology. The linked article is from 2003 so I’m not holding my breath expecting it to hit the market any time soon.
