Biology Discussion essay
Instructions
Time on Task: 60 minute video and approximately 15 minutes for activity
Currently, there are several infectious diseases circulating through the United States. Some are entirely preventable, others are partially preventable, and a few have no known treatment. Many misconceptions are floating around in the media (especially social media) and there are debates as to if we should be vaccinating our children against the 100% preventable life-threatening diseases. The goal of this activity is to educate you on the facts of disease causing organisms, vaccines, immunity, and provide you with resources to help you decide where you stand on the anti-vaccine movement. The assignment is to first watch a 60 minute video broadcast on PBS. Next, you will explore the website History of Vaccines. Finally, please complete the activity “How vaccines work” found on the History of Vaccines website. Take a screen shot or print screen of the final, completed slide and paste it into a Word Document. Save it to your desktop and submit it to Dropbox. Image must be large enough to read the text that says. “Congratulations! You have identified the agents needed to develop immunity to this pathogen.” In the Comments box, please describe your reaction to the PBS video. Include how you feel you play a role in herd immunity.
Even if you don’t have children, or don’t plan on having children, you are exposed to pathogens on a daily basis. You also have the choice to immunize yourself against diseases such as influenza (yearly booster) or help be a part of herd immunity against whooping cough (TDaP booster every 10 years). You many even have the choice to immunize yourself against new or mutated pathogens such as EV68, Ebola, or the currently unidentified polio-like virus that is spreading across the United States. I hope you enjoy learning about this subject and can use the information to make informed decisions about your health.
PBS Video “Calling the Shots”
If you have difficulty opening the above video, it is also available on YouTube.
History of Vaccines
