Homemade COVID-19 Vaccine: Does it Work and is it Safe?

An effective COVID-19 vaccine is a concern of most people all over the world, and now, some wonder if having it homemade is the way to go.

In fact, 'How to make COVID vaccine at home' is one of the most searched Google terms lately, said a Times of India report, proving people are willing to try a homemade version if it meant a glimpse of hope.

While there are several "citizen scientists" who likely have good intentions in making homemade COVID-19 vaccines, there are many problems that come with their experiments.

According to Science Daily, self-experimentation and a do-it-yourself COVID-19 vaccine could spell many challenges. There may be legal, ethical or public health issues to look into.

The Dangers

Many believe self-experimentation is something the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can't regulate. But law professor Jacob Sherkow of Illinois said that is wrong.

Sherkow said while citizen science is important and holds a strong tradition in the US, it can pose some dangers. "A homemade COVID-19 vaccine is perhaps more dangerous than people would like to believe," he said.

He recognized that people want to be immune to the coronavirus, but stressed the need to understand that there is a good chance these vaccines won't work.

"People need to understand that every home remedy is not necessarily going to help, and some may very well be fatal," he said.

He added that some self-experimentation will need to undergo some form of ethics review, by law or institutional policy. "Just because it's self-experimentation doesn't give you carte blanche," he said.

Even though the FDA can't regulate what citizen researchers post on the internet, they have a say in some matters. They can regulate use of typical equipment, chemicals and reagents for citizen research.

He pointed out that shipping out materials for the citizen science across state lines is a form of interstate commerce and "triggers FDA oversight." From that point, someone can be held liable by the FDA.

Homemade COVID-19 vaccines and other medications also run differently from regulated interventions.

Traditional vaccine development requires randomized controlled trials that look for specific immune responses. These trials also hold protocols on retention and use of data.

Biohackers don't just run the risk of endangering the lives of those who get their vaccines, but also the public's trust in all vaccines, said Sherkow.

It could offer a false sense of protection, trigger serious immune reactions or give other side effects.

"Take it yourself and there is not much anyone can or should do," said John Hopikins' Jeffrey Kahn. The real problem arises when people encourage others to try their DIY vaccines.

The Biohackers' Motivations

Efforts toward a D.I.Y. vaccine usually have the same idea that drastic times would need some quick, exceptional actions.

New York Times also said that, from these scientists' point of view, if they are given the skills to make a vaccine, they should do it. As long as they have been transparent about how they came to treatment, many can benefit from it.

Josiah Zayner is like these biohackers. He tried to replicate a COVID-19 vaccine that showed promising results in monkeys.

His plan was to test it on himself and stream his experiment online over a period of months, said a Bloomberg report. He believes testing the vaccine on his self, outside regulatory structures, could help test a quicker and cheaper vaccine.

But testing a vaccine is more complicated than that, as Zayner realized. There are still many unanswered questions in his research, despite its promising results.

"The results are going to be messy. The experiments are going to be messy," he said.

With this, he said there is a reason the clinical trials we have right now aren't rushed. In a challenging pandemic, any promising early stage results may be just that: promising.

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