Can Mosquitoes Be Used to Vaccinate People With COVID-19 Vaccine?

With all the side effects coming from COVID-19 vaccines that are affecting many people from different parts of the world, do we need another vaccine to be developed? What if developers use mosquitoes to vaccinate people in the fight against this killer virus?

The risk of developing blood clots is said to be much higher for vaccinated COVID-19 patients, a recently conducted study showed Thursday.

According to a BARRON'S report, the rare blood clotting called cerebral venous thrombosis or CVT occurred at a rate of 39-per-million COVID-19 patients, the University of Oxford researchers said. This is the same university that helped AstraZeneca developed its COVID-19 vaccine.

The research team added that the said rate is comparable to five in a million people following their first dose of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine.

From Killer Mosquitoes to Saviors

An Indiatimes report sai that, who would have ever known and thought that the stinging mosquito -- blood-sucking creature and the destroyer of one's evening peace -- not to mention, a little super spreader of diseases, could be made into one flying vaccine-carrying syringe.

It all started 11 years ago when a team of Japanese researchers genetically engineered mosquitoes that, instead of spreading disease, spread vaccines.

Now, usually, when mosquitoes are biting, they are injecting a small drop of saliva that prevents a person's blood from clotting.

What the research team did was they added an antigen, a compound that stimulates an immune response, to the mix of protein in their saliva.

Flying Vaccinators

In their study entitled, "Flying vaccinator; a transgenic mosquito delivers a Leishmania vaccine via blood-feeding," and published in Insect Molecular Biology, the researchers attached SP15 vaccine against a parasitic disease known as leishmaniasis spread by sandflies that can lead to skin scores and organ impairment to malaria mosquito.

As a result, the mosquitoes generated SP15 in their saliva and the mice which these mosquitoes bit yielded antibodies against the parasite.

However, the research team was unsure if the immune response was robust enough to shield against infection. In this experiment, rodents were bitten around 1,500 times on average, and even though that number may appear quite astounding, other studies reveal that in areas where malaria is rampant, people are getting bitten over 100 times at night.

The regulatory and ethical issues though may prevent these so-called flying vaccinators from ever taking wing, at least for the human vaccines' delivery.

For one, there is a big difference in the number of mosquito bites an individual is getting as compared to someone else and thus, people would get massively different doses of the vaccine.

COVID-19 Vaccines Presently Available

As of the last update on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website, there are three COVID-19 vaccines authorized and recommended for use in the United States. These include the Prizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccines.

For Pfizer-BioNTech, people who are 16 years old and above can get this COVID-19 vaccine. It is administered in two shots with a three-week or 21-day interval.

Moderna, on the other hand, is given to those who are 18 years old and above. It is given in two shots with a four-week or 28-day interval.

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson's Janssen is given to those aged 18 years and older with only a single shot needed.

However, as of April 13, the CDC said, it, along with the Food and Drug Administration, has recommended a pause in the use of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine by Johnson & Johnson in the US as a precautionary move.

Those who had been given the said vaccine within the past three weeks who experienced severe headache, leg pain, abdominal pain, or shortness of breath need to take medical care immediately, the CDC advises.

One who has been vaccinated with two shots of the Pfizer- BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, and one of Johnson & Johnson's, is already considered fully vaccinated two weeks after his last shot.

A related report is shown on Al Jazeera English's YouTube video below: