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Polymer Patches May Enable Effective DNA Vaccines
Zothecula writes "Taking a two-month-old in for vaccination shots and watching them get stuck with six needles in rapid succession can be painful for child and parent alike. If the work of an MIT team of researchers pans out, those needles may be thing of the past thanks to a new dissolvable polymer film that allows the vaccination needle to be replaced with a patch. This development will not only make vaccinations less harrowing, but also allow for developing and delivering vaccines for diseases too dangerous for conventional techniques."
The patch was designed with delivering DNA-based vaccines in mind. Thus far efforts to use DNA to generate more robust and safe vaccines has failed thanks to the immune system destroying them; the polymer film embeds itself in your skin and slowly dissolves, protecting the DNA in the process.
I'm actually 99% convinced that the reason people so readily believe vaccines cause terrible things is because the experience of holding an infant's hand while she receives their shots is so traumatizing people are looking for any excuse to not do it.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
My kids only eat what they can kill. Since we live in the city, it's tough on them (and on the neighborhood pigeons), but they're going to true Nietzschean superpeople when I'm done with them!
6 different serums that are required to carry the various vaccines.
You can't just mix them up in a slurry, because not everyone can (or wants) to get them all.
For example, I cannot take the MMR vaccine. (lucky for you all, I'm a carrier)
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Honestly I don't see a problem
You can be easily infected by deadly viruses via any number of methods, many of which you'd never notice. A scratch with a contaminated thumbtack would be enough for most nasty viruses.
If narcotic delivery were possible and caught on it would be a big win for everyone - the addicts wouldn't be tempted to reuse needles, and the rest of us wouldn't have to worry about used needles being improperly disposed of.
As for a roofie patch, roofies are dangerous because they can be quickly and covertly slipped into a drink, whereas you're much more likely to notice someone putting a patch on you - even if it takes you a few minutes to notice that someone has put a sticker on you it'll still be a lot more obvious and you'll have a window of opportunity to get help before the microneedles dissolve.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
There's no reason for them to hurt.
Small gauge needle, topical anesthetic if desired, and good technique.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Another case where I wish I had "off topic" mod points available...
I think they may be using smaller gauge needles nowadays. Last time I had a flu shot, the needle was so fine I didn't even feel the needle go in.
Though that could be because I'm used to the huge gauge needles used when I donate blood.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Life is pain. My five-year-old doesn't even cry anymore when she gets her shots -- she is brave as hell -- and when we are done, we go get ice cream.
You may think you're making her tough, but more likely you're teaching her to reward herself with ice cream and other unhealthy foods when she is feeling bad. Eating disorders often have their roots in how they were trained to think about food as a child.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
While I believe this is a good thing for evolution, I know it will be abused.
If all it takes to pick up an object with a limb is an opposable thumb, this will surely be abused by people.
Instead of picking up a banana, one could pick up a deadly rock. The appendage could also be used to deliver a choke where they would no longer require both limbs. You'd get grappling.
How easy would it be to make a pointy stick. You don't have to get as close to people to strike any more just don't wear thin hide.
The stories and info posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood.
Only fools would take it as fact.
As time goes by, we've come up with more vaccines. See the current CDC vaccination schedule (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/). Many vaccines arrive in one syringe now (like combined diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus-polio-H flu in Pentacel). Some folks miss a bunch of appointments and need to get caught up, in which case under rare circumstances I've been known to give up to 6 at once. In routine visits, though, it's usually 4 at the 2 month visit, 3 at the 4 month visit, etc. Recommendations vary somewhat in different countries. As there is no evidence that giving multiple vaccines is harmful (as any human child is exposed to billions of antigens a day just crawling around the carpet), but plenty of evidence that missing vaccines is risky, we sometimes end up giving a bunch at once to err on the side of safety.
Because jet injectors (which actually predate TOS) aren't nearly as neat as Star Trek portrays. Blowback and cross-contamination is a major concern. You basically need a new tip for each injection, rather than just a single one to use forever.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
From the article: “You just apply the patch for a few minutes, take it off and it leaves behind these thin polymer films embedded in the skin”
This doesn't sound like a band-aid that you'd rip off as soon as you left the doctor's office. Instead, you'd have the patch applied, wait a few minutes, and then the doctor would take it off and you'd be done. The polymer film would be embedded in your skin and nearly impossible to remove. (At least not without removing a good chunk of the skin with the polymer.)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Various combinations of being slightly behind on the child's immunization schedule and / or some parental choices ('we could do this now or next month') can land you in the six shot category although that's a bit of an edge case - four is more likely.
If you're kids are young adults now, the entire vaccine landscape has changed (aside from the needles).
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
And you know what? Tetanus shots hurt like a bastard.
Take the little plastic cap off the needle first.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
This could really help third world countries. Right now, vaccines (for the most part) need refrigeration so delivering them to remote areas can be a problem. If these skin patch vaccines don't need refrigeration, it will be easier to transport them. Even if they need to be kept cool, it should be easier to keep a hundred skin patches cold than keeping a hundred needles cold. (Plus the benefit of no used needles to dispose of while in the middle of nowhere.)
Finally, the medical expertise you'd need to apply these is likely minimal. Slap a patch on, wait a few minutes, take the patch off. Done. No need to know just how to safely inject the vaccine into the person.
This could really revolutionize vaccines in third world countries which, in turn, could drastically improve their quality of life.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.