You have probably heard or read the word vaccine before. Ask you parents and they will be able to tell you about the vaccines you probably had as a baby for several diseases that used to make lots of children and adults alike sick, but no longer thanks to vaccines. But what are vaccines? How were they discovered? Is there a vaccine for COVID-19? If not when can we expect one? These and more questions will be answered here in our discovery of the world of vaccines.
The History of Vaccines
If you speak Spanish you probably know the word vaca. It means "cow" in Latin and in Spanish. So what does that have to do with Coronavirus and vaccines? Did not the virus start with bats and perhaps pangolins, not cows? Watch this fascinating story and discover one of the most important scientists of all time, someone responsible perhaps for saving more lives than anyone else.
Science Beat and Eradicated (made disappear the perhaps the worst disease of all time - Smallpox). How does this compare to our current challenges with COVID-19
Think Aloud Reading from Kids Health Nobody likes getting a shot. They can hurt, and it's weird knowing that the nurse is about to jab you with that needleBut shots called vaccines keep you from getting some serious diseases. These diseases could make you very sick. The pinch of a shot isn't nearly as bad as those illnesses.
How Do Shots Protect Kids? Shots protect you by giving you only a tiny piece of a disease-causing germ or by giving you a version of the germ that is dead or very weak. Giving a whole germ that's alive would give you a disease (like measles or chickenpox).
But giving only this tiny, weakened, or dead part of the germ does not give you the disease. Instead, just the opposite happens. Your body responds to the vaccine by making antibodies. These antibodies are part of your immune system, and they can fight the disease if you ever come in contact with that nasty germ.
When your body is protected from a disease in this way, it's called being immune to an illness. In most cases, it means you won't get the illness at all. But sometimes, you can still get a mild case of the illness. This can happen with chickenpox. Even kids who get the shot to prevent chickenpox can still get a case of it. The good news is that they usually don't get a very bad case of it. Milder cases mean fewer spots and less itching.
Shots are given by injection with a needle. A syringe (say: sehRINJ) holds the liquid vaccine, and the needle has a hole in it for the liquid to squirt through. Shots are usually given in your arm or sometimes your thigh.
First Shots The good news is that kids get a lot of the shots they need by age 2. So if you're old enough to read this article, you've already had most of your shots! After that, a kid doesn't need many more. Kids get a few shots when they're between 4 and 6 years old. The next set of shots isn't usually until kids are about 11 or 12 years old.
Most kids should get the flu vaccine each year. Now, instead of a shot, many kids can get it as a nasal spray. This is a mist that is sprayed into the nostrils, so there's no needle. The shot and the nasal spray work equally well. Your doctor will suggest which is best for you.
Why Do Kids Need Shots?Shots are great for individual kids because it means that they won't get those serious diseases. But shots are great for the health of the country and world too. How? When almost all kids have had these shots, it means that these illnesses don't have much of a chance to make anyone sick.
Because most kids in the United States get all their shots, you rarely meet anyone who has had diseases like measles or mumps. Your mom or dad has probably had to show your school that you've had all your shots. Schools and camps do this because they don't want the kids spreading or catching serious illnesses.
Does Getting a Shot Hurt? OK, it's true. Getting a shot can hurt a little. But the pain usually comes and goes pretty quickly. If you cry, don't worry about it. Lots of kids do.
To make shots easier to take, try bringing your favorite teddy bear, an MP3 player, something that gives you strength or distracts you Or you can ask you mom or dad to hold your hand. Afterward, you may even get a little treat! Maybe your doctor gives out stickers or your mom and dad will take you to the playground. If you are older it may be a good opportunity to ask for an ice cream or lunch at your favorite pizza joint.
Sometimes after a shot, your arm will be sore, look red, or have a small bump where the needle went in. You also could have a low fever. Your mom or dad can talk to the doctor about any problems you have. Usually, the soreness and fever go away quickly or after you take some pain reliever, like acetaminophen or ibuprofen. It's OK if you don't like shots. But remember that they are your best shot at staying healthy!
ReFRAMing Research: How new technology could reveal a treatment for COVID-19
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide up to $100 million to improve detection, isolation and treatment efforts; protect at-risk populations in Africa and South Asia; and accelerate the development of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. We sat down with Ken Duncan, lead of the Gates Foundation’s Discovery & Translational Sciences team’s drug discovery efforts, to discuss how the team is harnessing existing drugs and research, as well as advancements in robotics to rapidly accelerate drug and vaccine development.
Q: When it comes to COVID-19, we know this virus is moving very quickly. R&D, though, can be slow, especially when it comes to developing vaccines and antivirals. So, what value is there in focusing on R&D for this pandemic? A: Well, there are few important things to understand. The first is that our R&D efforts are not only focused on developing new drugs, but also on repurposing existing drugs which are already registered for other uses. Many drugs have already been developed to treat infections caused by other viruses. Ideally, we can use those if any are sufficiently active against COVID-19. Some might be in the late stage of development, and others might be on the shelves of pharmacies already. We also have to think about how we’d use a drug. The current front-runner to treat the infection, remdesivir, has to be administered intravenously, so you're only going to be able to use it in hospital settings to treat people who are already seriously ill. You couldn't use it to protect a lot of people at once. The good news, though, is that we also have ways of quickly testing and developing new antivirals.
Q: What are those? A: Unlike even a few years ago, we now have access to an incredible new tool called the ReFRAME Collection. It’s a collection of thousands of compounds that have already been tested for safety. And we can rapidly evaluate these compounds to see if they are active against COVID-19. We’ve only had access to this tool for about 3 years, which means it’s just beginning to realize its potential. Subscribe to receive stories, research, and news from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Q: How does that process work exactly? Are you looking through this library of molecules and discovering whether something is useful for treating COVID-19?
A: There are basically two steps we are involved in right now. As a first step, we’re testing about a hundred different registered drugs that are most likely to be active against the virus. Step two is utilizing the ReFRAME Collection—which has 13,000 compounds—to search more comprehensively. Thanks to advances in robotics, we can do this at a high rate of speed. You expose the virus to these compounds and collect readouts on which compounds are effective in stopping them. Once a compound appears promising, we’ll move on to testing it in vivo in mice which have been “humanized,” or engineered to have the human ACE2 receptor, which is the protein that a respiratory virus like COVID-19 binds to when it goes into the lungs. And then we look to see if any of those humanized mice survive the viral infection. Q: Is the next phase after that humans?
A: Yes. And unlike the normal timeline of drug discovery, which typically takes at least two years from discovery to testing in patients—in this case, we could be into human testing within a few weeks.
Now it is your turn to be a journalist: Imagine that you are a reporter for an important Cable News channel, newspaper or magazine. Tomorrow you will be visiting the home of Bill Gates one of the richest people in history who has dedicated a large part of his fortune to improving the world, as you read above in the interview with one of the people from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prepare 15 questions you would like to ask Mr. Gates.