Vaccines
I have been very excited about NDV-HXP-S, which uses a 6-proline substitution (which makes the spike protein more stable) of the spike protein called Hexapro. Well, today a preprint came out with preliminary results that have two really good results in mice modified to have a human immune system.
First, they developed an awesome drug delivery method — it’s a patch that has an array of tiny microscopic needles that you stick on the skin. The vax is sprayed onto the needle side and then dried, which means that you don’t need a syringe and it doesn’t need to be refrigerated. Win! Win!
Second, a vaccine made of Hexapro spikes worked really well. They inoculated some human-immune-system-mice via the patch twice, 21 days apart, and then gave each of the control group and the inoculated group mice a really stiff dose of COVID-19. All of the control group died; none of the inoculated group had any symptoms. Win win win!
Variants
The World Health Organization that variants will be given names of Greek letters. Numbers are too hard to deal with. WHO has a list here, but here are the main ones:
| Old name | New name | Location found |
| B.1.1.7 | Alpha | UK (“Kent”) |
| B.1.351 | Beta | South Africa |
| P.1 | Gamma | Brazil |
| B.1.671.2 | Delta | India |