The world needs more vaccines, faster. A tiny tube could make all the difference.
Vaccines are made in batches, but some researchers want to overhaul that system to make the manufacturing continuous, efficient, and democratic.
Global vaccines shortages are pushing scientists to revolutionize manufacturing practices and shift from growing viruses in giant vats to cultivating them in long, thin tubes.
By some estimates, only around 1 percent of people in low-income countries have received one COVID-19 shot and each year only 5 billion doses of vaccines of every type are produced worldwide, according experts convened by the London-based think tank Chatham House. They noted that scaling up shots for COVID-19 is proving difficult. That is a grave concern, because the pandemic has underscored the need for technology that can dramatically boost global vaccine manufacturing capacity.
There are different kinds of COVID-19 vaccines that have proven to work. Some consist
