Needles No More

The days of long needles, angry nurses, and seeing grown men panic may be over, at least, for the most part. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated about 25% of adult human beings are scared of needles. 

This fear of needles, or any fear for that matter, can be detrimental.

Scientists from the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Stanford University (SU) have been developing a new way to receive a shot. A 3-D printed patch will have needles supposedly so small you can barely feel them.  

Dr. Joseph DeSimone worked at UNC for 30 years and is currently a professor of translational medicine and chemical engineering at Stanford University. His teams’ aim is to make getting vaccines pain-free, anxiety-free, and efficient in terms of dose and application. 

The patches are to be applied directly to the skin and contain immune cells that vaccines look too target. The results were 10 times more efficient than a shot to the arm muscle with a needle jab. 

“We have 100 to 1,000 times more of the targeted immune cells in the dermis of our skin than we do in our muscle,” Joseph DeSimone stated. 

“They can be self-administered. You wouldn’t need a health care worker…they could be delivered by UPS or Amazon.”

For the Future

This past year, we were hit by an enemy we couldn’t see. Covid-19 shook the system and a race for a vaccine started. The people panicked and feared more than needles. The number of lives Coronavirus was taking was rising rapidly. 

We eventually figured out a vaccine, and now are faced with another situation, the vaccine. Aside from folks not wanting to take a vaccine at all, some people wish it was easier to receive. 

Currently, most people will have to drive to a vaccination site and get a shot in the arm. While health care workers have been doing their best to mitigate the pandemic, this new patch could be world changing. 

Whether you want the vaccine for Covid-19 or not, a 3-D printed patch for any and all future vaccines or flu shots would be incredibly more efficient than what we have now. 

This relieves some of the pressure put on health care workers. Being able to order your vaccine patches relieves the fear of getting a shot, and pioneers the future of medical technology.  

People all over the world, poor or rich, will be able to get help if they want.

As humans, we are vulnerable to the unseen. The dangers are not always what is in front of us, but what may be lurking beyond.