Technology

59312 readers

5184 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

738

Ultrasound can push vaccines into the body without needles (www.newscientist.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

269 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Vaccines can be delivered through the skin using ultrasound. This method doesn’t damage the skin and eliminates the need for painful needles. To create a needle-free vaccine, Darcy Dunn-Lawless at the University of Oxford and his colleagues mixed vaccine molecules with tiny, cup-shaped proteins. They then applied liquid mixture to the skin of mice and exposed it to ultrasound – like that used for sonograms – for about a minute and a half.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (12 children)

History proves we do the cheapest, easiest, and fastest. So allow me to shit all over this idea...

This is slow at 1.5 mins vs a needle takes about 5 secs.
Takes skill to operate an ultrasound machine and probably training to get a consistent dose vs pull needle to this line and jab in arm to know you got it all in there.
Every Rite Aid and CVS would need an ultrasound machine vs here are these cheap disposable needles that require no power or maintenance.

Sure they might develop it faster or make a new more portable thing. But that's going to take a long long time when no one gives a shit to invest money in a new thing when needles work.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

            
              1.5min really isn't that long compared to the procedures just to process insurance, identity, etc. Retrieving needles, etc. This only needs the topical vaccine, an ultrasound machine, and a wipe for the machine.
When this goes mainstream it'll be a little device with cutout so you can apply it flawlessly to the upper arm. Ultrasounds need training to get readable data, but probably a LOT less just to apply ultrasound to an area.
Needles will still be king anywhere in the developing world. It'll be more expensive initially, but with the mass production the price will go down. And there will be small cost savings to not having to deal with sharps and biohazards as often.

load more comments (11 replies)