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.

  • tsonfeir@lemm.eeOP
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    1 year ago

    Antivaxxers now pro-abortion to avoid forced ultrasound vaccinations.

    • FarFarAway@startrek.website
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      As interesting as that would be to happen, in reality, there’s just going to be a bunch more people going without pre natal care.

      • tsonfeir@lemm.eeOP
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        Which is going to be most red states in the next decade. Great time to be in the little coffin business though.

        • M500@lemmy.ml
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          Why are democrats winning? The republican voter base makes decisions that directly affects their health in a negative way.

  • Starkstruck@lemmy.world
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    While this is awesome, I can already imagine anti-vaxxers are now deathly afraid of ultrasounds lol

    • coffeebiscuit@lemmy.world
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      Brace yourselves! Vaccination with sound conspiracies coming in!

      “The IRS called, they vaccinated me trough my phone in my ear!!?”

      “Mass vaccinations trough radio!!?”

    • silly goose meekah@lemmy.world
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      Idk, anti vaxxers aren’t afraid of needles/syringes as far as I understand. They don’t want that kind of substance to be put inside their body, regardless of the method of administration

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        I mean, yes, but a lot of them also think it’s a conspiracy where world leaders are trying to vaccinate everyone because ??? Those types will start avoiding ultrasound to not get tricked into getting vaccinated.

        • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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          The best part is “depopulation by helping people stay healthy” e.g. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

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    I think that’s the basic premise of the Star Trek hypospray. Pressure pushing in medicine rather than a needle.

      • [email protected]@sh.itjust.works
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        My favorite anecdote, though not necessarily mine, about jet inoculation comes from the army. They had long lines of men to immunize and little time to do it. Walk up, hold still, hear the click, feel the water pierce you, walk away sore. However, if anyone moved even slightly during the process, the needle of water becomes a knife, slicing their shoulder open. It was not a well thought out mechanism.

      • A Phlaming Phoenix@lemm.ee
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        It takes my kid half an hour of screaming and throwing a public fit just to get within two miles of a needle, so I’ll take it.

        • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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          Fwiw, my kid who was like that still hates needles, she just has better ways of coping now. The other kid likes to watch it go in, doesn’t bother her a bit.

          Both get an ice cream cone on the way home.

          Of course being clenched up with fear makes it more painful too, so at some point not in the middle of the screaming, make sure they know to try to relax that arm muscle even if the rest of their body is rigid with fear. And to remember it’s going to take maybe 10 seconds so don’t pull away. (It will take less, but kids count fast)

          It’s too bad we can’t let them do it themselves, it might make it easier.

          • wmassingham@lemmy.world
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            Also tell the person administering it to do it slowly. In my experience, most of the pain was from them doing it too fast. Something about the fluid stretching the muscle in painful ways before it can spread out, or something.

            • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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              That tracks with my experience. I’m shot-tolerant, so I have the calmness to observe. Of course, some are also just inherently more irritating/painful than others, and there’s different volumes of liquid as well.

              For instance, if you’re shot-averse, get Pfizer Covid rather than Moderna Covid. It’s ⅓ of the size/dose.

      • M500@lemmy.ml
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        Also consider the people who have needle phobias. My heart starts to race before getting a vaccine. If I have to give a blood sample I will faint.

        I’m getting woozy talking about this.

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          That’s weird. My heartrate and blood pressure go down before getting a shot.

          Then I go down, and feel like death for a day and like I’m in rehab for a week.

          Funny thing, I’m not really getting woozy talking about it (a little, but more sympathetic memory of it).

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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      Since vaginal ultrasound is how they detect a “fetal heartbeat” at 6 weeks (the heart isn’t yet formed or pushing any blood, but there’s an electronic pulse) at which point abortion is illegal in many states, that might be a good thing.

      Although, as ultrasound is also how my overdue fetus was diagnosed with the umbilical cord wrapped 3x around the neck, leading to a quick C-section and healthy baby, I would rather keep the ultrasound machines and lose the lunatics.

      • ugh@lemm.ee
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        They don’t care about women who are considering abortion. I’d be more worried that they’d implement a less reliable test.

    • The Barto@sh.itjust.works
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      The ultrasound waves are how they activate the 5g tracking chips, it’s all in their plan I got from this website I found on page 68 of Google.

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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      I was gonna say oh now they are gonna say that’s what the 5g towers are REALLY for 🙄🙄🙄

      • Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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        At this point if it was possible to orchestrate some massive conspiracy to vaccinate people en masse, we should just do that. They’ll shout about it either way, but this way they’ll at least be vaccinated

        • turmacar@lemmy.world
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          This is basically the fluoride ‘debate’.

          (Yes, fluoridating the water supply is good.)

          • RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml
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            Also, if you are injesting enough flouride to cause health issues when you brush your teeth, you are brushing horrifically wrong.

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            I specifically remember my bio mom ranting about how we all would have telekinetic powers if not for the fluoride in the water. She believed that was the ‘real’ reason the government did it.

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      That was my first thought the flat earthers and mud flood people are going to have a field day with this!

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      No joke. The first thing that popped into my mind when reading the title was: “great, now my father will be afraid to do an ultrasound test”

    • AlternateMrPapaya@lemmy.world
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      Finally? They were used back in the 1970s. There were issues with them getting contaminated during use, so disposable needles became the norm.

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    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.

    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      No one is suggesting this be put in practice in its current form, that would be insane. That said, this is a good first step for alternative forms of vaccination. “First step” being the important part.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      A machine that produces ultrasonic waves is not that complex. It’s the sensors and qualified technician to read and capture the scans that’s expensive.

      Plus have you ever had to physically restrain your child through a needle shot? You said “easiest” and that shit ain’t easy.

      • SacralPlexus@lemmy.world
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        You seem to be the only commenter here who recognizes that this would be amazing for pediatric patients - who coincidentally receive way more vaccines than adults.

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
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      Might be useful for those people whose blood doesn’t clot. Though I don’t know if a small syringe needle is even an issue for them anyway

    • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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      I heard an ad for people scared of dentists - they were offering to put people under.

      [More] dangerous and expensive, but better than skipping it altogether.

      Gotta be a market for hyper-hypodermic-phobic folks. Even if you & I stick with the five second jab.

      • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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        There’s more to full sedation than just “scared of dentists”, but it’s a start. Anyone who needs substantial work can get it done in 1 day on full sedation instead of a dozen shorter sessions. yes, “needs substantial work” often relates to “scares of dentists” (or relates to “was too damn poor for dentists”)

        And I’m with you on hyper-hypodermic-phobia thing. People don’t realize that “fear of needles” does not manifest as a phobia, but as an acute body response. Getting a shot ruins me for a week, and often involves a doctor’s time because my vasovagal symptoms tend to need a little more expert observation. About 1/3 of the time I stop breathing for a short time. I’ve never needed life-saving measures, but they need to make sure that’s the case (lol).

        So for doctor’s offices, it could easily become savings for them because of people who have responses to needles.

    • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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      I think it depends. I went to an ER once that threw me into a wheelchair when the world was spinning post-blood-draw and dropped me off in the hall saying “You’ll be fine!”. That hospital will never get an Ultrasound injector.

      When I got my first COVID vax, however, I took up 20 minutes of the time of 2 on-call doctors and a nurse because my passing out often resembles a seizure. And then I took up one of their very few “just in case” beds for close to 90 minutes. Someone else with a problem with needles waiting for a vax had to wait for the bed to open up. They’d have killed to have said ultrasound injector for people like me.

  • Joshua Hershey@lemm.ee
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    We are one step closer to hypo sprays from Star Trek. I don’t like needles so this will be really neat to see in mass adoption.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      Hyposprays already were invented, mass produced, used as standard in the military for several years, and abandoned because they weren’t as hygienic as needles.

      Anything that pushes through the skin into the blood pushes pathogens in too. Statistically, needles were safer so hyposprays were abandoned.

    • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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      I’m dumb…what does being diabetic have to do with inability to get needle vaccines? I’m seriously asking.

      • Dadbod89@lemmy.world
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        There’s type 1 and 2 diabetes. I believe type 2 requires you to regularly prick your fingers to test your blood sugar levels several times a day while type 1 requires mandatory insulin shots into your stomach a few times a day. Basically a diabetic fuckin hates needles for good reason and to be able to do that with ultrasound would be rad.

        • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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          I’m sure there are some people that would help, but I went from blood draws making me nearly pass out to self injecting meth(otrexate) once a week after my RA diagnosis.

          • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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            A blood draw ruins my week (not exaggerated). If I were diagnosed with diabetes I would end up dead. For me, anything that avoids a needle is worth it.

            • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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              Exactly. For you it’d likely be worth it. For people like me it’d be a waste - the answer was to nut up. I also require hour-long transfusions every two months. I’m not sure they could do anything but maybe put you under anesthesia for something like that.

              • abraxas@sh.itjust.works
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                Yeah, I really can’t imagine. My wife (who works in the medical field) tried to help me “get used to” needles and I didn’t make a single lick of progress. With my kind of issue, it’s common that the issue gets worse and not better if you get shots more often. Something about my subconscious forming a feedback loop with my reactions to create worse reactions over time. I didn’t stop breathing from shots when the symptoms started when I was 8 or 9, just got dizzy/lightheaded and passed out.

                • PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works
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                  That sounds insanely distressing. I won’t recount my bad experiences. None of them were harmful, but some nurses aren’t as gentle as others.

  • Emerald@lemmy.world
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    I guess it’s interesting but this seems to have minimal use case. For those with reactions to injections and such it’s useful, but it seems much easier to use a needle in most cases. Also that article claims that it “doesn’t damage the skin”, but I don’t see why a vaccine would cause any meaningful damage to the skin in the first place.

    Edit: Okay I’m seeing now how this would be useful for more frequent injections like insulin and such if it can be used like that.

    • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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      Cue an entire generation of malformed republican babies will smallpox