Follow Your Nose

MEISSA VACCINES says a nasal spray is the best way to stop transmission of the coronavirus just breathe in | Could a nasal spray vaccine help end the pandemic?

- TIM LOH

Half a Greek alphabet and two years into the pandemic, the world is coming to terms with the notion that Covid-19 is here to stay. As new variants emerge, millions are still falling ill, increasing the risk of even harder-hitting strains. While coronavirus shots are among the greatest medical achievements of all time, reaching the market in less than a year and saving millions of lives, anyone who's received three doses and still gotten infected will understand that the virus is a resilient opponent.

Marty Moore says he can beat it.

"Covid isn't just a sprint, it's a marathon," says Moore, the relentlessly upbeat founder of Meissa Vaccines Inc. Today's vaccines have largely won the sprint of preventing serious disease, "and thank goodness for that," he says. "But now we need something else to gain control of the virus."

Moore is among a growing cohort of virologists proposing we spray vaccines up people's noses rather than inject them into arms. The advantage of that approach, they argue, is it can trigger the body to develop infection-blocking defenses in the sinuses and throat and allow it to start fighting illness much faster than an injected vaccine can.

There are only two ways to stop the spread of the disease, according to Christian Drosten, Germany's most prominent virologist. One would be for enough people to build up protection via repeated illness that increases immunity at the front end of the respiratory tract. "The alternative would be to have a live vaccine that gets sprayed in the nose or throat," he said on a podcast in March. Or, as Moore says, to build protection where the battle begins, like putting guards in front of a building rather than inside it.