UNIT 06

METHODOLOGICAL RESOURCE TO LEARNING N° 23

TITLE: Discovering the coronavirus vaccine

CLASS: 3rd A, B, C, D TIME: a week DATE: From October… to October…

LET’S MAKE CONTACT AND REMEMBER

Activity 1 Dear students, we are going to observe carefully the images and think about
this situation, then answer to the questions in the chart
(queridos estudiantes, vamos a observemos cuidadosamente las imágenes y pensemos acerca de esta
situación, luego respondemos las preguntas en el cuadro).

We will let you know if Coronavirus vaccine is safe or not

K- W- O Chart

What do I know about What do I want to What is your opinion about

the Coronavirus know about it? if teachers and students
vaccine and its want to try the new
process? vaccine?
As far as I know…
I consider…
I watched/ heard…
I have read/ listened…
I think about…
In my opinion…

Taken from: https://www.pinterest.es/pin/567312884305213126/

LET’S INQUIRE AND CONTRAST

Activity 2
After reflecting about the new vaccine now we are going to confirm or refute our knowledge in the following
video “COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine: everything you need to know” April 2020 by Cambridge
University, Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPkVbZ9X_jQ
After listening and watching the video we are going to complete the Gap-filling exercise using no more than
three words for each answer:

Coronavirus vaccine studies

Place: Cambridge University

Complete:
 Professor´s name: Jonathan Heeney
 What animal cause the virus?: [---2---]
 How long will take a safety vaccine?: [---3---]

1.- [---1---] Jonathan Heeney

2.- [---2---]

3.- [---3---]

LET’S CONSTRUCT
Activity 3
Posterior watching the video about coronavirus characteristics and process, let´s read the text in Annex 1
“Do You Want to Be a Vaccine Volunteer?”
Remember to use skimming
(General ideas) and scanning
(detailed information)
strategies

Do You Want to Be a Vaccine Volunteer?

How do you sign up for a trial? Who is eligible? Could an experimental shot protect you? Here’s what you need to know.
By Heather Murphy
Published Aug. 5, 2020, Updated Aug. 7, 2020

Maybe you are an altruist looking for a way to help fight the coronavirus. Maybe you are hoping to be among the first to try
an experimental vaccine. Or maybe you are just bored or could use a few hundred dollars. Whatever your reasons,
scientists, bioethicists and current volunteers say participating in a vaccine trial can be meaningful. And without hundreds
of thousands of volunteers, there will be no vaccine for anyone. But you may be surprised by the commitment and risks
that a trial entails. Here’s what you need to know.

How do I find a trial?

A number of sites maintain lists of coronavirus vaccine trials. The Covid-19 Prevention Network site, created by the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, helps connect volunteers to Phase
3 studies. Right now, for example, Moderna is looking to enroll around 30,000 volunteers. ClinicalTrials.gov also
lists Covid-19 vaccine studies at different phases and COVID Dash, a portal managed by a group of doctors, clinical trial
professionals and students who want to encourage people to volunteer, features studies across the world.

What do these different phases mean?

There are three primary phases of a vaccine trial. A Phase 1 trial is focused on safety. If you participate, you are likely to
be among the first human beings to try the vaccine. Researchers will want to track whether it affects you negatively, such
as making you feverish or dizzy. Typically, they will monitor you and a few dozen other subjects closely after each dose,
and then check in periodically for about a year. At the time you receive the vaccine, the developer won’t know if it prevents
Covid-19. And even if it does, there’s little chance you’ll get the right amount. Still, Phase 1 trials are appealing to some
volunteers because clinicians can sometimes assure all subjects that they’ll get the experimental vaccine, not an inactive
placebo.

Phase 2 is bigger and typically involves a few hundred people. At this point, researchers are still watching for side effects,
but they are also examining whether their vaccine is generating an immune response, said Dr. Larry Corey, a virologist at
the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre and the leader of the Covid-19 Prevention Network.
If you think about a vaccine developer’s desired immune response like a bar that a pole-vaulter needs to clear to move to
the next round, “you want to see that you got over the bar,” he said. To extend the metaphor, the pole-vaulter won’t know if
clearing that bar was enough to win, he said. Just because a vaccine has generated an immune response, doesn’t mean it
was sufficient to protect anyone, he said.

Only a Phase 3 trial allows researchers to study if their vaccine works. They do this by enrolling tens of thousands or
hundreds of thousands of volunteers, giving one-half of the group to two-thirds of them the vaccine, and giving the rest a
placebo or an alternative treatment. They do not expose anyone to the coronavirus, but they try to enroll a large enough
group in locations with enough cases that they can bank on some people getting infected in the normal course of their
lives. They then evaluate whether the vaccine reduced the frequency of acquiring the infection and lessened the severity of
the disease in the test group, Dr. Corey said.

How do I increase my chance of early access to an experimental vaccine?

There’s no guarantee that you’ll actually be protected from the coronavirus at any phase of a vaccine trial, no matter how
hyped the product has been. By a Phase 3 trial, of course, there’s more to suggest that it works than a Phase 1 trial. But
you might not get the vaccine at all. It might be an inactive placebo or an alternative intervention.
Researchers have to give these to some subjects to create a control group, said Nir Eyal, the director of the Center for
Population-Level Bioethics at the Rutgers School of Public Health.
“Otherwise what do you compare the results to?” Dr. Eyal asked. During the Ebola outbreak, there was a push to try to run
efficacy trials without a control group, he said. But eventually most researchers came around to the idea that, without a
control group, a study would tell them “basically nothing” because — as with the coronavirus — its “spread is mercurial,
and very different in different areas at different times.”

A. Now we are going to read and answer the questions

1.- How many volunteers the institute is asking to try the vaccine?

____________________________________________________________

2.- How long is the monitoring process in Phase 1?

____________________________________________________________

3.- Is there a guarantee to protect people to get infected from coronavirus?

____________________________________________________________

4.- What are the doctors’ name in charge of the experimental vaccine?

____________________________________________________________

B. Keep on doing your best effort, let’s go a deeper in our comprehension for the
reading “Do You Want to Be a Vaccine Volunteer?”and select 4 true
statements
(Sigamos haciendo nuestro mejor esfuerzo, iremos profundizando en nuestra
comprensión y escogeremos 4 oraciones verdaderas)

Choose the four [4] true statements

 A A. without hundreds of thousands of volunteers, there will be no vaccine for anyone
B. In Phase 1 doctors will monitor you for about a year
C. Dr. Larry Corey is a biologist and scientist
D. In Phase 2 researchers are still watching for side effects
E. In Phase 1 there is no effect in a person
F. In Phase 3 trial allows researchers to study if their vaccine works
G. There is a protecting guarantee for people who try the new vaccine

We are going to compare our answers in Annex 2: ANSWER KEY. (Compararemos nuestras respuestas en el Anexo 2: Clave de
respuestas

LET’S TRANSFER

We are in our final step; after we have watched the video and read about Coronavirus vaccine and its phases, It´s our
turn to write an Email for our friend from another community who wants to try the new vaccine and we are going to
explain the benefits and consequences about it. So we are going to follow the writing process in EVIDENCE N° 23
Counting Words: 100- 120 so we are going to follow our “Writing Process”

1.- Prewriting: We are going to write words in the graphic organizer

(friend’s mail)

(your mail’s title)

Introduction greeting, name, address and important question

Paragraph 1 (benefits)
Body
Paragraph 2 (consequences)

2.- Drafting: We are going to write sentences in the graphic organizer

 (luciana.paredes@huanuco.coar.edu.pe)

(Think about the vaccine) Remember to use connectors

Introduction greeting, name, important question

Hello Luciana,
This is Roberto Chapas from Coar Loreto…..

Paragraph 1 (benefits)
I was researching about the benefits….
Body
Paragraph 2 (consequences)
On the other hand, some consequences I found…

Conclusion Suggestions I suggest you to….

Best wishes, kisses, Take care….

Roberto Chapas
Student at Coar Loreto

3.-Revising and 4.- Editing: We are going to make changes and improve spelling and grammar
(Use your dictionary and do it in your own mail)
5.- Publishing: Now we are going to publish the Final Version to send to your teacher (100- 120 words) 😊

G1: Print version

G2: Use your institutional mail
G3: send your evidence to your teacher by WhatsApp

LET´S EVALUATE AND REFLECT

Let´s evaluate our writing and consider the following criteria in our Email
Evaluamos nuestra escritura y consideramos el siguiente criterio en nuestro correo
ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST MARKS

Content – It has all the important information been included in the

Email (benefits and consequences) (0- 5 points)
Always do
Organization – The ideas are presented in a logical order- parts of an your best
Email (0- 5 points) effort!
Language – Good use of vocabulary, connectors and grammar (0- 5
points)
Communicative Achievement – The writing follow and informal and
colloquial style of an Email (0- 5 points)
TOTAL 20 MARKS
Comment:
Total:
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Pictures taken by Phil Mercer August 20, 2020 04:02 AM retrieved from: https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-
 pandemic/potential-covid-19-vaccine-wont-be-compulsory-australian-government-says
 Reading by Heather Murphy “Do you want to be a vaccine volunteer?” The New York Times, August 7 th, 2020
retrieved from:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/health/volunteer-coronavirus-vaccine-trial.html
 Video “COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine: everything you need to know” April 2020 by Cambridge University,
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPkVbZ9X_jQ
 Picture Connectors https://www.pinterest.com/pin/306385580900590387/
 Diploma Programme language acquisition: examination question types and rubrics (for first examinations 2020)

AUTHORS

Poluche Wong, Dora and Yactayo Marengo, Ana María (2020). Methodological Resource to Learning N°23:
“Discovering the coronavirus vaccine” – COAR SAN MARTIN- COAR PASCO- PERU.

ANNEX 2: TRANSCRIPT AND KEY ANSWERS

LOOK AT THE VIDEO
So I´m Jonathan Heeney, I´m the Professor of Comparative Pathology at the University of Cambrige. I study
infections that jump from animals to humans. In fact the large majority of human infections have their
origins from animals.

What´s so different about the new Coronavirus, Covid-19?

Well Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, they have the largest RNA genome.
and RNA unlike DNA is less stable and there´s a lot changes that occur quite easily which makes it very easy for
these viruses to adapt and to modify to change their behaviour. and what we have as an example of this
epidemic is a virus that has come from bats, possibly been amplified in markets in China. The current evidence
is that it look residence in pangolins for a short period of time and then of course adapted in such a way that
easily made the jump to humans. And it´s because this virus is so particularly adept at being transmissible
before it is causing disease symptoms, that we have now a global pandemic.

How does the Coronavirus differ from seasonal fly?

This is not another flu vírus.We don´t have any historical immunity in the human population so this vírus is just
galloping through populations around the globe like there´s no tomorrow. There´s no resistance and it´s
affecting people of all walks of life. The difference between flui s of course we have natural herd immunity.We
understand it, it´s known to us, we have vaccines for it. Ando f course we´re trying to make vaccines against
pandemic flu.
The reason we got involved in this vaccine race is because the Gates Foundation and Innovate UK have asked
us to use our new technology to try to build a pandemic flu vaccine. A vaccine tha´s going to protect us from all
the potential variants out there and that are likely to spill over from animals.

Tell us about the Coronavirus vaccine that you´re developing

So vaccines are the best known preventative measures in the medical toolbox. Historically thy´ve been used to
eradicate important pathogens such as smallpox. We´re pushing back on things like polio and wecan eradicate
measles if we can get vaccines to everybody who really needs one. So these are really really powerful tolos
against epidemics and they protect us all the time from a great number of pathogens- What´s different about
our approach is that we use now genomics, the nest generation sequence data that´s coming out of epidemics
from all around the world now and we´re able to computationally put these together to look at the sequences
and then to design vaccines that are going to have features that are going to protect us from all those different
variant viruses that are circulating amongst us.

When Will we have an effective vaccine against this Coronavirus?

That´s a really tough question. That´s a million dollar question and it´s gonna be at least a year to 18 months
before there is a vaccine where there´s sufficient doses to vaccinate the most susceptible. And I think
understanding that´s really , really importante and that whole processo f getting from Discovery which is where
we are now, to a safe vaccine where there´s really no side effects is going to be a year or two – no questions.

Will we still need a vaccine, given the amount of time it will take to develop one?
 I predict, looking at the rapid spread of this and really how fast it´s gone throughout all countries in all corners
of the globe, we are going to still need a vaccine in 18 months or even a year or two from now.
This problem is not going to go away. We ´re trying to understand about viral persistence, understand the
asymptomtic Carrier state and indeed getting herd immunity, which is what people talk about, is not going to
happen in the next month or two, that is going to take a very long time.Now the other pont to remember is we
had another Coronavirus outbreak very related to this called SARS – we call it SARS1.
This is the cousin of SARS and it´s come from the same host, which is bats. Particlar species of bats in China
carry a whole Family of different types of Coronaviruses which use receptors that we have in our airways. And
so it´s just a matter of time before the next outbreak would come and we would be naive to think, okay this has
gone away too, let´s forget it. The point is that we´re abble to apply the same technology that we´re using for a
pandemic flu vaccine to the coronavirus problem.

Are there reasons for optimism?

Yes there is reason for optimism against this pandemic.We have new technologies,
We have new ways to make vaccines as I just described, we have approaches to get them around the world
and most importantly, every country now has got their shoulders behind this problem. As far as we know,
control measures are being implemented to varying degrees and I think with current knowledge and our ability
we will overcome this.But it is going have a profound effect on our way of life and certainly on our economy.
There´s no doubt about that.

Activity 2

Gap-filling exercise using no more than three words for each answer:
2.- Bats
3.- 1- 2 years
Activity 3

EXERCISE A:
1. HOW MANY VOLUNTEERS THE INSTITUTE IS ASKING TO TRY THE VACCINE?
AROUND 30, 000 VOLUNTEERS
2. HOW LONG IS THE MONITORING PROCESS IN PHASE 1 TRIAL?
FOR ABOUT ONE YEAR
3. IS THERE A GUARANTEE TO PROTECT PEOPLE TO GET INFECTED FROM CORONAVIRUS?
NO THERE ISN´T
4. WHAT ARE THE DOCTOR´S NAMES IN CHARGE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL VACCINE?
DR. EYAL AND DR. LARRY COREY

EXERCISE B: CHOOSE THE FOUR TRUE STATEMENTS:

ANSWERS:
A) WITHOUT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF VOLUNTEERS, THERE WILL BE NO VACCINE FOR ANYONE.
B) IN PHASE 1 DOCTORS WILL MONITOR YOU FOR ABOUT A YEAR.
D) IN PHASE 2 RESEARCHERS ARE STILL WATCHING FOR A SIDE EFFECTS.
F) IN PHASE 3 TRIAL ALLOWS RESEARCHERS TO STUDY IF THEIR VACCINE WORKS.