I always knew this pandemic would accelerate the real life invention of Star Trek’s hypospray, though I’m highly disappointed they haven’t called it that. Really though it’s just a new vaccine trial which I guess is more important and it goes into the skin rather than penetrating it.
How are these new hyposprays better/safer/less painful than the 1950s–60s hyposprays?
No idea, I’ve not had either. But I’m interested to learn more about those 50s/60s hyposprays.
I found this article but it would be interesting to hear from any dopers who might have direct experience of these. Looks like the same principle.
I had at least one vaccination using one of those big old guns when I was a little kid. I don’t remember if it particularly hurt; it was more that it was a big scary gun.
The issue with the old jet injectors, as I understand it (and why they aren’t used much, if at all, anymore), was that they could suck in blood and other fluids from one patient, and then pass those fluids on to subsequent patients, and thus be a vector for spreading diseases.
That’s a strange photo. The man with the needle has a smug grin, and the woman’s expression suggests that he just made an inappropriate offensive remark.
I could see the same jet-injection concept being employed, but continued refinements have perhaps led to a better mousetrap being available today.
I’m more interested in the apparent multivalent vaccine that these researchers are developing. I think that’s going to be the bigger deal than the delivery mechanism.
I still have a scar from a mishandled jet injector in basic training. The only difference between a jet injector and a jet scalpel is the skill and care of the injection tech.
When I was a kid during the 1976 Swine Flu outbreak, my mom took me to be vaxxed by jet injector. I remember as a kid at the time thinking the jet injector was a great march forward for science over getting stuck with a needle, and I rejoiced, thinking the jet injector would take over and I’d never get stuck with a needle again. I seem to remember it being either not painful at all or marginally so.
I was supposed to get two injections, but the second one got called off. I later learned it was because the vaccine was associated with an increase in reports of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
The jet injector also went away and the needle became the only injection method again, much to my disappointment as a kid not crazy about needles. As @kenobi_65 mentioned, I later learned they had sterility issues, and also I think they just malfunctioned a lot and were much more expensive to maintain than simple disposable needles. Hopefully the more modern models have resolved the old issues with them.
When we were getting our shots in basic training, we were told to lean into the jet injector because if we moved we would get sliced open. I didn’t move but others did and there was a whole lot of blood.
While the technology has been updated and all, syringes are cheap and don’t have a lot of moving parts. I can’t really see them going away any time soon.
I thought the principal ostensible advantage of those 1950s devices was speed - that you could go along a row of schoolkids or army recruits and inject them one after the other in quick succession.
Developing something for people with a fear of needs is a different objective.
I remember getting the swine flu injection in 1976 by the “jet injector” and it hurt like the dickens. I even remember someone remarking how, if they knew how much it would hurt, they’d have gone for the needle.
Hmmm - maybe the injector was malfunctioning.
Yes, I think that speed/efficiency was the primary benefit of the old jet injectors.
While I don’t disagree that a different method could address vaccine hesitancy for people who have a fear of syringes/needles, my strong suspicion is that most vaccine refusers are doing so for other reasons, and a hypospray won’t make any difference for them.
Fear of needles seems to be very common.
The majority of children exhibited needle fear, while prevalence estimates for needle fear ranged from 20-50% in adolescents and 20-30% in young adults. In general, needle fear decreased with increasing age. Both needle fear and needle phobia were more prevalent in females than males. Avoidance of influenza vaccination because of needle fear occurred in 16% of adult patients, 27% of hospital employees, 18% of workers at long-term care facilities, and 8% of healthcare workers at hospitals.
The fear of needles: A systematic review and meta-analysis - PubMed
Interesting, and avoidance of vaccines due to it is a lot more widespread than I realized. Thank you for sharing that!
In the particular case of the current mRNA vaccines, such a system might lessen the number of bad reactions. It is particularly important not to inject directly into the blood stream. I suppose the risk of that would be less with a hypospray?
Lucky you. I have an actual hole in my arm about 1/4 inch wide and 1/4 inch deep.
I recently got needle free local anesthetic, but I don’t know what kind of device was used or why this application gets no love in articles about non-needle technologies.
Yeah, it’s really goddamned hard for me to get a shot. I fainted with both of my initial COVID vaccines, had a full-on panic attack with the second one despite taking a strong anti-anxiety med, and I think I’m going to have to get my wife to make my appointment for my booster–I’ve never asked her to do anything like that before–because I keep finding myself unable to make the call, panicking at the idea.
There was an throwaway anecdote in an article I read about the vaccine’s development: apparently, some of the scientists involved made a nasal spray version of the mRNA vaccine super-early-on just as a proof of concept and tested it on themselves. It makes me irrationally furious (and I use the word “irrationally” on purpose, so please don’t explain to me why it’s irrational) that the nasal spray isn’t made more widely available. Even if it’s less effective than a shot, I bet it’s a damned sight more effective than no shot, and would be a good way to get a lot of the vaccine hesitant to make the leap.
I get FluMist every year that it’s available, because I know the Flu vaccine is important. But the phobia makes it incredibly difficult for me to get the vaccine in years when Flumist isn’t available, and I dread turning 50 and no longer having Flumist be on-label for me.
Please, please, please make a needle-less COVID vaccine!
Yeah, one of my kids (8 yo) has always been very fearful of shots. We had done some techniques that seemed to help, in the past, though.
At her first covid shot a week or two ago, it became clear that it’s a full-on phobia. We’re trying to get her in to see someone for treatment ASAP, but there are no appointments available before she’ll need her booster. At the drive-through vaccination clinic, one medical assistant was basically telling me to just hold her down, but I wasn’t willing to do that. Eventually she turned her head and scrunched up her face and yelled, “just do it!” so we did get the first shot in her, but it was very traumatic.
I still would want to address the phobia, but it would be amazing if there were a nose spray option in the mean time.
8 year olds never like the idea of a needle. If she was eventually willing to let them do it that doesn’t sound so much like a phobia to me, just standard small child fear. I reckon there might be a bit less hesitancy if we used a word that wasn’t “needle”.