MEDICINE

VACCINATION
Hi everyone, welcome to our presentation. Today, we’ll ask for your attention on a topic
closely related to a global issue that’s been overwhelming the media for almost 2 years.

Medicine, as well defined by Wikipedia, is the art, science and practice of caring for a
patient. Among the delicate, revolutionary ways of treatment it has helped grace the
Earth, vaccine remains one of the most important achievements. What it is, how it is
applied and why the anti-vax trend really shouldn’t exist, will all be described in our
presentation today.

I. Definition & classification:

- A vaccine is a suspension of weakened, killed, or fragmented microorganisms or
toxins or of antibodies or lymphocytes that is administered primarily to prevent
diseases.
- We can classify vaccines as numerous types, but these are the 4 most popular
types of vaccines:
+ Weakened, or attenuated, vaccines consist of microorganisms that have lost the
ability to cause serious illnesses but retain the ability to stimulate immunity.
+ Inactivated vaccines are those that contain organisms that have been killed or
inactivated with heat, radiation or chemicals. They elicit an immune response, but
the response often is less complete than with weakened vaccines.
+ Subunit vaccines include antigens, or epitopes, that best stimulate immune
system.
+ Toxoid vaccines are formalin inactivated toxins used as vaccines.

II. How vaccines work:

- Vaccines train your body to fight germs faster. They introduce a harmless form of
the germ into your body. Your immune system sounds the alarm and learns how to
fight it off. Afterwards, your immune system remembers that germ. So if that germ
shows up again, your body fights it off right away and you don’t get sick.
- Also, there are 2 types of immunity:
+ Active immunity results when exposure to a disease organism triggers the
immune system to produce antibodies to that disease. Active immunity is long-
lasting, and sometimes life-long.
 + Passive immunity is provided when a person is given antibodies to a disease
rather than producing them through his or her own immune system.

III. Methods of vaccine application:

- Depending on the parasitic nature and pathogenesis of the pathogen as well as of
vaccines, people use different methods to achieve the highest efficiency.
- There are 3 ways to apply vaccines to patients’ bodies:
+ Injecting beneath the skin is currently the most common method today,
specifically for the BCG vaccine to prevent tuberculosis.
+ Skin incisions. This method has previously been used for the smallpox and
tuberculosis vaccines.
+ Absorbing vaccine orally. This method is used for the Sabin vaccine to prevent
polio.

IV. General applications:

- We now have vaccines to prevent more than 20 life-threatening diseases, helping
people of all ages live longer, healthier lives. Immunization currently prevents 2 –
3 million deaths every year from diseases.
- For instance: At the end of May 2017, the Master of Global Health hosted the 4 th
edition of Development and Application of Vaccines in Global Health.
- Nationwide and international programs strived to maintain and expand coverage of
existing vaccines in low-income countries. There was continuous innovation to
design and implement control, elimination and eradication tools to protect children
and adults against diseases such as polio, hepatitis B and pneumococcal infection.
- Investigators in Global Health conducted research ranging from basic science to
clinical trials in order to develop vaccines against emerging pandemics such as
Ebola and Zika.
- There is innovation in biotechnologies to approach the design and testing of
vaccines against deadly elusive diseases such as HIV, malaria or tuberculosis.

V. COVID-19 applications:
- COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) is an emerging disease caused by a newly
discovered coronavirus. It is recognized that a vaccine is urgently needed to
prevent people from becoming ill and dying from COVID-19. In response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, scientists around the world have come together to focus
 their efforts on developing vaccines to prevent people from becoming infected
with the coronavirus.
- Currently, 2 vaccines are in use, namely, Oxford – Astra Zeneca and Pfizer –
BioNTech. Both have been authorized and tested on thousands of people, hence
they prove safe and effective. Even though they are suitable for adults of all ages,
side effects may unpredictably occur, such as arm pain, headache, muscle aches,
chill or fatigue.

VI. Counterargument (anti-vax):

- The situation that brings about vaccine hesitancy is interesting to look at. The
overwhelming success of certain vaccines has made certain diseases rare and
consequently people no longer appreciate how serious the illness is due to a lack
of familiarity with it and become complacent. Therefore, with the minimal
knowledge that vaccination includes injecting the virus into their body, anti-
vaxxers become apprehensive and refuse to be vaccinated.
- Most concerns about immunization are not supported by evidence. The risk of
death by vaccination can be compared to air crashes, in which the perceived
potential harm seems immense, but considering the actual number of death due to
lack of vaccination and car crashes, it is simply irrational to be vaccine hesitant.
- The World Health Organization now views vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten
global health threats. Vaccine is never the harmful threat, but the reluctance to be
vaccinated is.

In the end, we hope to have included as much useful information for you as possible,
especially amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. That is the end of our presentation, thank you
for your attention.