A Vaccine Patch Could Someday Be An Ouchless Option

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/27/ [login to see] /a-vaccine-patch-could-someday-be-an-ouchless-option
It's the rare individual who actually looks forward to getting jabbed with a needle, even if what's in the needle can protect them from a serious disease such as COVID-19.

But several teams around the world are working on a way to inject a vaccine without the ouch. The trick is to make the needles small. Really small. So small they don't interact with the nerve endings that signal pain.

Mark Prausnitz is director of the Center for Drug Design, Development and Delivery at Georgia Tech. He works on something called microneedle patches to deliver vaccines. So far, he's developed patch vaccines for flu and measles, but the technology could be used for a COVID-19 vaccine as well.

You do feel something when the microneedles are pressed against your skin. "Like if someone took some Velcro and pressed that firmly against your skin," Prausnitz says. "There's a kind of a roughness. Some people may describe it as a kind of tingling. So there is a sensation, but it's a sensation that people don't find objectionable or painful."