John Lauerman writes: For the millions of people around the world who don’t have access to hard-to-get Covid-19 vaccines, a group of Boston-area scientists has a potential solution. And it’s literally a solution, one that you snort in hopes of warding off the deadly virus.
The group is called the Rapid Deployment Vaccine Collaborative, or RaDVaC, and their vaccine is so easy to make that its chief scientist, Preston Estep, said we could whip it up in my kitchen. So we did.
Drawbacks: The vaccine isn’t proven to work, and it doesn’t have regulatory authorization. It also hasn’t gone through huge, lengthy, costly clinical trials like those undertaken by Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc., AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson. The main testing ground for the vaccine is RaDVaC’s scientists themselves and other colleagues like Harvard Medical School’s George Church, who believe the project has merit.
What it does have is low-cost, low-tech production. Shots can be made for as little as a dime each and took less than an hour to mix together in my home -- less time than it would take to make a loaf of bread.
What it does have is low-cost, low-tech production. Shots can be made for as little as a dime each and took less than an hour to mix together in my home -- less time than it would take to make a loaf of bread.
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