The development of highly effective COVID vaccines in less than a year is an extraordinary triumph of science. But several coronavirus variants have emerged that could at least partly evade the immune response induced by the vaccines. These variants should serve as a warning against complacency—and encourage us to explore a different type of vaccination, delivered as a spray in the nose. Intranasal vaccines could provide an additional degree of protection, and help reduce the spread of the virus.
The currently authorized vaccines are injected into the muscle of the upper arm. Through a variety of mechanisms, they simulate a coronavirus infection. To fight off this perceived attack, the immune system mobilizes antibodies and T cells. As a result, in the event of an actual coronavirus infection, the immune system is prepared with a strong defense.
This approach can be enormously effective in reducing the risk of illness. Among nearly 600,000 people in Israel who have been fully immunized with an injected coronavirus vaccine, there has been a 94 percent decline in symptomatic cases of COVID, according to research by the country’s largest health care provider. However, worrisome new coronavirus variants have the potential to substantially erode that impressive efficacy.
For example, mutations in one variant, called B.1.351, have made at least three of the current vaccines less effective, based on data from clinical trials. A separate variant, called B.1.1.7, has been linked to more than 40 percent greater transmissibility, nearly 30 percent higher mortality, and a longer period of infectiousness. These characteristics could explain peaks in COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths that have occurred in the U.K., Israel, Ireland, and Portugal.
Although injected vaccines do reduce symptomatic COVID cases, and prevent a lot of severe illness, they may still allow for asymptomatic infection. A person might feel fine, but actually harbor the virus and be able to pass it on to others. The reason is that the coronavirus can temporarily take up residence in the mucosa—the moist, mucus-secreting surfaces of the nose and throat that serve as our first line of defense against inhaled viruses. Research with laboratory animals suggests that a coronavirus infection can linger in the nose even after it has been vanquished in the lungs. That means it might be possible to spread the coronavirus after vaccination. Data collected in surveys of nearly 400 adults for 10 weeks beginning in April 2020 suggest that more services and communication are needed so that even front-line health and food bank workers, for example -- rather than only social workers, doctors and therapists -- can spot the signs and ask clients questions about potential intimate partner violence. They could then help lead victims to resources, said Clare Cannon, assistant professor of social and environmental justice in the Department of Human Ecology and the lead author of the study.
The paper, "COVID-19, intimate partner violence, and communication ecologies," was published this month in American Behavioral Scientist. Study co-authors include Regardt Ferreira and Frederick Buttell, both of Tulane University, and Jennifer First, of University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
"The pandemic, like other kinds of disasters, exacerbates the social and livelihood stresses and circumstances that we know lead to intimate partner violence," said Cannon. She explained that increased social isolation during COVID-19 has created an environment where victims and aggressors, or potential aggressors in a relationship, cannot easily separate themselves from each other. The extra stress also can cause mental health issues, increasing individuals' perceived stress and reactions to stress through violence and other means
