News update

On this special news update…

Covid-19 Vaccine

Covid-19 vaccine news…

How Vaccines Work

We explore how vaccines work…

End to the Pandemic

And discover how vaccines could end the pandemic!

First up…

Scientists have announced major breakthroughs in the fight against Covid-19 – vaccines to stop the disease spreading.

vaccines

A vaccine is a substance that can stop people being infected by a disease.

Now, two medical companies from America and Germany have announced the successful development of Covid-19 vaccines!

People who are given the vaccines are much less likely to become infected with Covid-19 and they have both been tested to make sure they’re safe.

But how do scientists know the vaccines actually work?

They took thousands of volunteers, and split them into groups.

They gave a real vaccine to one group, but only a pretend version of the vaccine, known as a “placebo”, to the other group.

placebo

The scientists then recorded which volunteers caught Covid.

The volunteers who received the real vaccine became infected much less often than the volunteers who received a placebo.

The results from both tests provided convincing evidence that the vaccines stopped most people catching the disease!

Next up…

Vaccines have been used to prevent people catching diseases for hundreds of years, but how do they work?

When someone receives a vaccine for a virus, they develop what is called immunity.

immunity

Immunity means that a person’s body develops protections against a virus and the person is no longer at risk of becoming ill.

So when someone receives a Covid-19 vaccine, they will no longer be at risk from the disease.

As more people receive a vaccine, and become immune to the disease, it becomes much harder for the virus to spread.

So if more people take the vaccine, fewer people become ill!

Eventually, when enough people have taken the vaccine, the virus will find it so hard to spread, that it will stop being a major health risk.

And finally…

Vaccines will help end the Covid pandemic, but there are some challenges to overcome first.

It will take time to manufacture the billions of doses required to vaccinate everyone on the planet.

The vaccines will then need to be distributed all around the world.

This is particularly difficult for vaccines that need to be kept very cold before use, as lots of large freezers will be needed to store them.

But don’t worry.

Although we’ll have to keep wearing face coverings and continue with social distancing for a while longer, safe and effective vaccines will help life return to normal in the end!

That’s all for this week! We’ll see you next time!