Around the world, several teams of scientists are looking to create “contagious vaccines,” that would spread by themselves, giving herd immunity to populations faster than the disease can spread itself.
“The potential benefits of transmissible vaccines are enormous, but there are some safety oncerns that need to be figured out before their successful implementation,” Mark Smithson of the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University explained in a video.
“Use in humans may be warranted for populations that are hard to reach, or for epidemics that are uncontrollable by direct vaccination. However, using transmissible vaccines could be dangerous. Mainly because vaccines with a potential to spread through a host population also have the potential to revert back to the disease.”