“An innovative new way to deliver vaccines could drastically improve the health of the third world, and even the first world, by making vaccines cheaper and easier to distribute and use,” Business Insider reports, adding, “The ‘vaccine patch’ would be as easy to apply as a Band-Aid, and would be stable for weeks at room temperature.” According to the news service, “The patch differs from the nicotine and birth control patches currently in use,” as “[i]t uses tiny ‘microneedles’ coated in DNA, which is deposited into the very outer layer of the skin.” Business Insider adds, “There’s still a lot of work left to do to get the patch working in humans and through clinical trials, but when approved, the patch vaccine will have plenty of advantages” (Welsh, 2/14).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

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