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GENERAL ENGLISH · BREAKING NEWS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

COVID-19
VACCINE
BREAKTHROUGH

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1 Warm up

Vaccines have saved millions of lives and wiped out diseases that people often used to die from.
However, in recent years, there has been a growing number of people who are opposed to vaccines
(anti-vaxxers).

In pairs, match some typical statements made by the anti-vaxxers with the common arguments against
them.

1. Vaccines cause autism.

2. There hasn’t been enough research.
3. Vaccines are very profitable.
4. Vaccines are expensive.
5. People are getting increasingly sick which shows vaccines don’t work.

a. It’s a lot cheaper than the disease. For every dollar spent on a vaccine, you get around 7 dollars
back. So it saves money in the long run.
b. Just not true. Life expectancy is getting longer all the time and child deaths are at an all-time low.
This is true all over the world. A lot of this is due to vaccines.
c. People make money from many things; it doesn’t mean that they are bad. Vaccines make a lot less
money for drug companies compared to other drugs.
d. The doctor who first published this theory in 1998 was found to have dishonestly acted for profit,
falsified his results, and was barred from practising medicine. There is no evidence for this claim at
all.
e. We have data from literally millions of children demonstrating how safe vaccines are. We have
more information about vaccines than any other medicine.

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COVID-19 VACCINE BREAKTHROUGH

2 Vocabulary Part A

Later in the class, you will watch a news segment on the discovery of a new vaccine. In pairs, match
these words from the video to their meanings.

1. vaccine a. a medicine designed to stop you getting a particular disease

2. develop b. giving official permission to do something

3. unprecedented c. having the right to do or obtain something

4. authorisation d. not done or known before

5. acknowledged e. recognised as being true, valid or legitimate

6. eligible f. something that shows a disease or illness is present

7. be exposed to something g. to be at risk from something dangerous

8. symptoms h. to create and improve something

3 Vocabulary Part B

Work in pairs. Use a dictionary or the Internet to complete the table below with different forms of
the words from Part A. Note down any new meanings you come across and discuss them with your
partner.

verb noun adjective connected forms

1
vaccine/ X X
2

develop
3 4 5

precede X unprecedented
6

authorisation/ unauthorised
7 9
8

acknowledge 10
X unacknowledged/
11
/
12

expose 13 14 15

/exposé

X 16
eligible 17

X symptom 18
asymptomatic

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COVID-19 VACCINE BREAKTHROUGH

In pairs or groups, complete and discuss the questions.

1. Have you ever had a for a disease or a virus? What do people

usually receive in your country?
2. Can you give an example of a situation in your life that was ?
3. What do you need to get to a) drive b) drink alcohol c) own a gun in your country?
4. Who in your life do you as being the biggest help to you?
5. Can you give an example of someone famous in your country who had their bad behaviour
?
6. At what age are you to buy a) a car b) cigarettes c) alcohol in your country?
7. Have you ever had a bad illness? What were the ?

4 Watching for details

Before you watch, read the statements below and try to predict the answers. Then watch the video
the first time and match the numbers to the statistics they represent.

1. 90 a. The age where you become more likely to receive a vaccine.

2. 50 million b. The number of doses the company can supply before the end of
the year.
3. 43,500 c. The number of people the vaccine has been tested on.

4. 50 d. The percentage of people who will be protected from the virus

by the vaccine.

5 Watching for comprehension

Read the statement below and decide if they are true (T) or false (F). Now watch again check.

1. The vaccine was tested in Spain.

2. There are concerns about the safety of the vaccine.
3. Nobody has ever created a vaccine this quickly.
4. Some people will receive the vaccine before the end of the year.
5. The scientific community has no more work to do on this.
6. It is possible that life could be closer to normal by May next year.
7. It will be easy to decide who should receive the vaccine first.
8. Hospital workers and people under 50 will be most likely to receive the vaccine first.

*a milestone - a very important stage or event in the development of something

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6 Talking Point

You have been elected to decide who should get the vaccine first in your country. Look at the list of
the following groups of people and put them in order of importance from 1 (most important) to 10
(least important) for getting the vaccine.

Work in teams or pairs and discuss/agree/disagree on your choices. There are no right or wrong
answers, but you must be able to explain the reason for your answers. You can use these expressions
to help you with the discussion. Make notes.

Expressing opinions

I think... / I feel ... /In my opinion ... /I believe that ...

Comparative phrases

... is (much) more/less important than Y because ...

... is (not) as important as Y because ...

... should have (greater) priority over Y because ...

Hospital workers Children under 12

Police People over 60

Shop workers Teachers

Restaurant workers Bankers

Celebrities Leaders of the government

....................................................................................................

....................................................................................................

....................................................................................................

....................................................................................................

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COVID-19 VACCINE BREAKTHROUGH

Transcripts

4. Watching for details

News reporter: Great excitement today as developers - Pfizer and BioNTech - confirmed they have
developed a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus which will prevent 90% of people from
getting infected.

News reporter: So far, the vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in Turkey, South Africa,
Argentina, Germany, Brazil and the United States. No issues relating to safety were
reported. The speed at which the vaccine has been created is unprecedented.

News reporter: The pharmaceutical companies hope to get emergency authorisation to use the
vaccine before the end of November and expect to supply 50 million doses before
the year’s end. The scientific community acknowledged that there is still a long way
to go, but there is great optimism with the vaccine being labelled ’a milestone’, and
suggestions that the world could return to business as usual by Spring of next year.

News reporter: One of the issues facing governments in issuing the vaccine is who would be eligible
for it first? With the elderly being most at risk, some have suggested that they should
be first in line. However, hospital workers and staff at care homes, who are vital to
care for the sick and are exposed more frequently to the virus, are also a high priority.

News reporter: The matter is still under discussion and no final decisions have been taken, though
it will undoubtedly be the focus of much public debate in the coming weeks. It is
likely that people under 50 who show no symptoms will be the least likely to be
vaccinated.

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

COVID-19 VACCINE BREAKTHROUGH

Key

1. Warm up

10 mins.
Ask the students to match the common misconceptions about vaccines to the reason why they are wrong. You
may want to ask students if they have heard any of these misconceptions before. You could also discuss if people
object to vaccines in their own country and what vaccinations they typically receive. You may also want to explain
that autism tends to make people find social interaction difficult and have very specific and sometimes limited
patterns of thought.
1. d 2. e 3. c 4. a 5. b

2. Vocabulary Part A

5 mins.
Ask students to connect the words to their definitions. You may want to ask them to look them up or use a
dictionary. You could extend this activity by asking them to write sentences with the words in context.
1. a 2. h
3. d 4. b
5. e 6. c
7. g 8. f

3. Vocabulary Part B

10 mins
Explain to the students that when learning vocabulary, it’s a good idea to be aware of other forms of the word
from the same family. Ask them to use a dictionary or the Internet to complete the table. For larger classes, you
may want to divide the table up and have different groups focus on different sections of the table and then share
their answer with other groups.
For lower level students, you may want to give them the first few letters of words in the ’connected forms’ column.
Assist students with slight variations in meaning between words within the same family.
1. vaccinate
2. vaccination
3. development
4. developing
5. undeveloped
6. precedent
7. authorise
8. authorities
9. authorised
10. acknowledgement
11. knowledge
12. knowledgeable
13. exposure
14. exposed

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15. unexposed
16. eligibility
17. ineligible
18. symptomatic

Ask the students to complete the questions with the vocabulary as an extra exercise to help them with the new
words, then ask them to discuss the questions in pairs or groups. Make sure that everyone has the same answers
and give feedback to the class afterwards, /or/ you could go from group to group to give individual feedback.
Answers to the gap-fill in the questions:
1. vaccination, vaccinations
2. unprecedented
3. authorisation
4. acknowledge
5. exposed
6. eligible
7. symptoms

4. Watching for details

5 mins.
Ask students to match the numbers to the statistics. For lower level students, you may want to give them a copy
of the script and have them complete this as a reading exercise after they have watched the news report. Before
watching/reading, ask the students to predict the answers and then check them as they watch or read.
1. d 2. b 3. c 4. a

5. Watching for comprehension

10 mins.
Ask students to watch (or read) for a second time and answer true or false to the statements. Again, you should
ask them to predict the answers before the exercise. Explain the meaning of the word from the video ’milestone’:
a very important stage or event in the development of something.
1. False 2. False 3. True 4. True
5. False 6. True 7. False 8. False

6. Talking Point

15 mins.
Explain to the students that, as they saw in the video, countries are going to have to make a decision about who
receives the vaccine first. Point out that this will not be easy as, to begin with, there will be very few vaccines
compared to the number of people who will want them. Explain that they have been chosen to decide who should
receive the vaccines in their country.
Ask students to number the groups of people and to justify their decisions. Allow students to give their own
views.

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