Imagine if a nasal spray could make you immune not only to the viruses that cause COVID-19 and influenza, but to all respiratory diseases. In a paper1 published in Science today, researchers describe a vaccine that has done just that. When given to mice, the vaccine protected them for at least three months against multiple disease-causing viruses and bacteria ' including the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 ' and even quelling responses to respiratory allergens. If the research translates to humans safely and effectively, such a 'universal vaccine' could be offered to everyone at the start of each winter ' and perhaps provide a first line of defence against future pandemics. Bali Pulendran, an immunologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and his group previously studied the Bacillus Calmette'Guerin (BCG) vaccine2, which provides temporary protection against numerous diseases and works by activating the innate immune system and keeping it active. This...
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