So long vaccine hesitancy, there's a new way to ensure everyone gets vaccinated:
Mosquitos!!
The Blaze reports that in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists have demonstrated the effectiveness of using mosquitoes as 'flying syringes' to vaccinate humans against malaria. The research, conducted at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, represents a new and potentially worrying advancement in vaccine technology.
The study involved genetically modifying malaria parasites to stop developing after a certain period of time in the human body. The modified parasites, named GA1 and GA2, were designed to prime the immune system without causing a full-blown malaria infection. Researchers then infected mosquitoes with these engineered parasites and allowed them to bite human test subjects in a controlled setting.
Yes, Scientists at the Leiden University in the Netherlands, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, successfully delivered a malaria vaccination into human beings using mosquito bites.
Afforded a test group of 43 adults between the ages of 19 and 35 who previously had no record of malaria infection, the researchers subjected subjects to 50 bites from GA2-infected mosquitoes, 50 bites from GA1-infected mosquitoes, or 50 bites from uninfected mosquitoes (placebo), in three vaccination sessions at 28-day intervals.
Then, three weeks later, those same adults were allowed to be bitten by malaria-infected mosquitos.
For the scientific record, the GA2 group did the best. Only one of the participants in that group got malaria. The rest of the groups not so positive - or maybe more positive for malaria that is.
'These findings represent a significant step forward in malaria vaccine development,' Julius Hafalla, an immunologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Nature. 'The ongoing global malaria burden makes the development of more effective vaccines a critical priority.'
While scientists are all kinds of excited about the potential of using mosquitos for mass vaccination efforts, the study brings up a few ethical concerns, primarily regarding the right to informed consent.
There would be literally no way to say "no" to a vaccine delivered indiscriminately by a mosquito - unless one was to stay inside all the time like we were supposed to do during Covid.
Back in 2010 when this idea was first floated, there wasn't a regulatory body on earth that would have okayed mosquito-borne vaccines, but is that still true in the 2020s, post-Covid?
We shall see.
Shout out to Not the Bee user @leamcwho for the head's up about this story.
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