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Ultrasound can push vaccines into the body without needles (www.newscientist.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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.

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[–] 1 point 2 years ago (10 children)

Will anyone actually do this, if it takes 1-1.5 minutes and needs a heavy machine?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (9 children)

    People who don't like needles? Or do you mean institutions?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (8 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (6 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (5 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Yeah. I half-mentioned it elsewhere. I was in an ER and needed to have blood drawn. I was just barely staying conscious by leaning back with an ice pack, but they needed the room so a nurse came in and said "yeah you're fine" and lugged me from the blood-draw chair into a wheelchair. My wife wanted to hit her (lol) but it took the 2 of them to keep me from hitting the floor instead of the wheelchair because I started to black out from suddenly standing.

    Some nurses are idiots.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Jesus. I had a nurse accidentally throw a vial (one of like 11. It was my first RA blood draw) in the biohazard bin. She took one look at me and ripped that box off the wall to carefully extract it, risking herself in the process.

    Recently they moved half the infusion staff to another location and a nurse I'd never met, who's a super nice guy, just isn't as careful when he's finishing up as the women have been. First bruise I've gotten from them in like two years. My arm looked like I was shooting up heroin or something. No real damage, but it's unsettling.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah, exactly. And I agree that there's separate categories for skill, dedication, and niceness. Some folks are damn good but lazy and don't care, others make up for being "only ok" by trying really hard and caring a lot, and some are just friendly when they screw up. It's nice to have more than 1 of those 3 at a time. Someone in my family went to a weight loss doctor and asked me to come along. She was the friendliest doctor I'd ever seen... and the appointment finished with "I'm really lost. I don't think there's anything else we can try right now. You're doing everything right". Don't know WHAT that was in the spectrum of skill and dedication. Maybe it's true, maybe she was just giving up. But from what I've seen/heard, it's definitely better than "well try harder, eat less, and workout more" that heavier patients hear from doctors who don't even ask what they're eating or what their workout regimen looks like.

    I don't have to deal with a lot of that stuff you do, but I can imagine it since what little I deal with has shown me multiple sides of people (doctors too, I suppose).

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    My worst was my GP/PCP saying all men are a little ADHD. I got an official diagnosis with ease. Now I use a doctor recommended by a friend and she's fantastic. All my docs are women now, and I only use men for mental health stuff. It's worth it hunting down the right people if you can. I'm kinda lucky with my insurance. I use a badass local pharmacy, too, and their competence is mind blowing compared to big corporate pharmacies.

    What fucked me up with the nurse was that the first time I met him he just finished the infusion. Took the tape off and pretty much dropped the IV rig. It just bruised a bit, but was distressing to watch. The second time I saw him I was like "oh fuck oh shit" but he had no problems. Got it on the first attempt. Painless. He's just way too chill on the back end.

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