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China and India have approved COVID-19 vaccines that can be given through the nose or mouth, which scientists hope will be a “game changer” for the pandemic.

The vaccines target the mucous membranes in the nose, mouth, and lungs to start an immune response in the places where the coronavirus enters the body. The idea is for mucosal vaccines to prevent mild cases and block transmission to others, which the existing shots can’t do.

“These approvals validate the need for mucosal vaccines. That’s the direction we need to go globally, and the United States needs to catch up,” Marty Moore, PhD, co-founder of Meissa Vaccines in California, which is developing a nasal COVID-19 vaccine, told Nature. Head over to WebMD to read the full story.