Chemistry
Vaccination: Science
versus superstition
This topic presents activities based on vaccinations, ranging from reviewing
the vaccination debate to how vaccinations work in our body.
In this topic you will investigate the following:
• How do vaccines work?
• Do all people elect to vaccinate?
• Globally, what effect does this have on communities?
So, let’s inject you with the knowledge you need to make your own
decisions!
This is a print version of an interactive online lesson.
To sign up for the real thing or for curriculum details
about the lesson go to www.cosmosforschools.com
Introduction: Vaccination (P1)
Scientists in the United States have recently completed a study that set out to understand why some people think that
vaccination is dangerous. Their results show that many refuse to believe scientific facts even when they are explained to them.
Vaccines save millions of lives every year. They generally work by introducing a weak or dead pathogen – a virus or germ that
causes a disease – to a healthy person so that their body can learn what the pathogen looks like and how best to fight it. Before
vaccines were invented, many people died because their bodies didn’t know how to fight some diseases.
Vaccinations can make diseases so rare that they disappear. One of these was smallpox. Doctors think that it killed more than 300
million people in the 20th century before finally being eradicated.
So science has proved that vaccines work. But some people refuse to believe that and think vaccines are dangerous. Doctors and
scientists worry that if some people won’t use vaccines, not only could they get sick and die, but it will make it hard to make
diseases disappear the way smallpox did.
But the study on why some people won’t give their children vaccines shows it is harder to convince people than we thought. The
researchers found that telling people the scientific evidence about how vaccines work doesn't help if they just don’t believe it.
The report has left scientists scratching their heads wondering how to convince people not just about vaccines but to persuade
doubters about the science on climate change or evolution. Some psychologists say doctors need to talk to individual people and
listen to what’s worrying them. Just telling them the scientific evidence is at best likely to fail, and at worst likely to reinforce their
concerns.
Read the full Cosmos Magazine article here
Left: Disease versus vaccine - which is more dangerous? Source: World Health Organization. Right: Anti-vaccine
propaganda. Source: naturalnews.com
Question 1
Propose: Imagine you have been asked to speak with a concerned parent about vaccinating their child. Using the information
above, suggest what sorts of questions the parent might ask. What advice would you give in return?
Gather: Vaccination (P1)
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Video credit: Yootubealator / YouTube.
Question 1
Define: Explain what is meant by the term pathogen.
Question 2
Vaccines enable the production of memory cells that can help
fight off future attacks from a specific pathogen.
True
False
Question 3
Outline: Describe the body's typical immune response to a pathogen without ​the use of a vaccine.
Question 4
Research: Recent reports on whooping cough suggest that toddlers need to receive a "booster shot" to prevent possible
development of the infection. Use the internet to find out why some vaccinations require booster shots.
Question 5
Research: Use the Venn diagram below to describe the similarities and differences between a virus and a bacteria.
Question 6
Complete: Choose one of the following vaccines and complete the table below for your chosen vaccine.
Polio vaccine
MMR (measles, mumps, rubella)
DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis)
Hepatitis B vaccine
Varicella vaccine (chicken pox)
Vaccine chosen
Who developed the vaccine?
When was the vaccine
developed?
Which disease does this
vaccine protect against?
Disease symptoms
Who is most susceptible?
Is the disease caused by a
virus or bacteria?
When and how frequently
should a person be
vaccinated?
Question 7
Explain: If a disease has been eradicated why do people still need to be vaccinated against it?
Process: Vaccination (P1)
The message from the World Health Organization for World Immunization Week (24-30 April 2014) is "Immunise for a
healthy future: Know, Check, Protect".
From what we have learned so far, promoting vaccination is a difficult process and there are many organisations and agencies
around the world working on this. Unfortunately, the decision to vaccinate is not always in the hands of individual citizens.
Not all governments around the world are willing or able to provide the same vaccination opportunities as their rich western
countries. Deaths from viruses such as HPV (Human Papilloma Virus - the cause of cervical cancer) are occurring at an enormous
rate in countries that do not vaccinate against them. Other viruses such as those that cause smallpox, polio or measles have been
targeted in some countries such as India.
Left: A worldwide comparison of cervical cancer deaths. Source: www.womendeliver.org. Right: A "before and after"
vaccination snapshot from India. Source: www.jhsph.edu
Question 1
Think: What reasons can you imagine affect whether or not a country develops a vaccination program?
Question 2
Calculate: Use the information about smallpox, polio and measles in India (above) to calculate the percentage decrease in the
number of reported cases of each disease from before to after the use of vaccines.
Question 3
Research: What is herd immunity and how does it relate to the graphical information above and the vaccination debate?
Question 4
Research: Use the internet to find out what is meant by innate immunity.
Receiving a jab from a pointy needle can be bit scary and the
thought of it turns a lot of people off receiving vaccinations. To
get around this problem, scientists are working on new and
innovative ways of administering vaccines that are less likely to
scare people.
Watch this short clip about a new flu vaccine to see a new
approach!
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Video credit: ABC2 News / YouTube.
Question 5
Think: How do you think developments such as these will affect vaccination rates around the world? What other designs to the way
a vaccine is administered do you think would promote vaccination?
Question 6
Explain: Aside from the vaccination experience being more pleasant, explain how the vaccine band-aid could be considered a more
appropriate method of administering some medications and vaccines.
Hint: What other advantages are described in the video clip?
Apply: Vaccination (P2)
Experiment: Outbreak!
Imgage credit: iStock.
Aim
To model the effect of vaccination on the spread of a disease.
Background
We have learned about the how vaccination protects us against pathogens and the process known as herd immunity ensures the
safety of a community. Let's see if we can model the effect of vaccination on the spread of disease. Your teacher has all the
resources you need, so follow the instructions below and get ready to find out how susceptible to a disease you might be!
For the teacher: all secret instructions are provided in the model answers attached to these lessons!
Good luck team!
Materials
For this experiment, you will need:
A pen or pencil
A card or paper square (supplied by your teacher) with the words "vaccinated" or "not vaccinated" on the top.
0.1M NaOH
Phenolphthalein
Deionised water
Test tubes (one per student)
Test tube racks
Method
Part 1 - Before vaccination
1. Your teacher will give you a card with the word 'vaccinated' or ‘not vaccinated’ at the top. Your card is to be kept a secret!
2. You are to move around the room and shake hands with students in the class. Write down the names of four people you have
shaken hands with and return to your seat.
3. Your teacher will have a test tube set up in the room for each of you.
4. Bring your card to the front of the room (don’t reveal it!) and one by one you are to add one drop of phenolphthalein to your
test tube.
5. If your test tube turns pink, you have contracted a horrible, deadly disease!
6. Those infected students are to remain standing at the front of the room and are assumed to have no immunity to the virus
responsible for the deadly disease.
7. The rest of the class returns to their seat.
8. The infected student(s) are to read out the names of those students they shook hands with. These students stand and reveal
the names of those students they shook hands with. This continues until there is no one left seated.
9. Each student reveals if they have been vaccinated or not.
10. Those vaccinated sit down.
11. The students standing represent those infected. Record this number in the results table below.
Part 2 - One quarter of the class is vaccinated
1. Your teacher will redistribute the card and reset the test tubes. Your card is to be kept a secret!
2. Repeat steps 2 - 11 above.
Part 3 - Half of the class is vaccinated
1. Your teacher will redistribute the paper and reset the test tubes. Your card is to be kept a secret!
2. Repeat steps 2 - 11 above.
Part 4 - Three quarters of the class is vaccinated
1. Your teacher will redistribute the paper and reset the test tubes. Your card is to be kept a secret!
2. Repeat steps 2 - 11 above.
Use this data to complete the following questions.
Question 1
Record: Use the table below to present the class results.
Experiment
Number of people initially
infected
Part 1 - Before vaccination
2
Part 2 - One quarter of the
class vaccinated
2
Part 3 - Half of the class
vaccinated
2
Part 4 - Three quarters of the
class vaccinated
2
Number of people infected
Percentage of population
infected
Question 2
Design: Produce a graph that represents the number of people vaccinated against percentage of the population infected. Be sure
to include an appropriate title and axis labels (showing units).
Title
auto
Series 1
Y-Axis
x
y
This graph needs some data!
auto
auto
auto
X-Axis
Question 3
Analyse: What happened to the population as the number of vaccinated people increased?
Question 4
Discuss: As a class, discuss what you think would happen if there were two class members who had an innate immunity to the
disease and did not require a vaccination.
Hint: You may use the class discussion at the bottom of this activity for this question.
Question 5
Conclude: Use this space to respond to your aim and restate your findings.
Hint: Describe what you have learned about vaccination and herd immunity.
Career: Vaccination (P2)
Dr Danielle Stanisic is trying to create the world’s first malaria vaccine.
Danielle Stanisic always wanted to be a doctor. At school, she
studied English, maths, physics, chemistry, and biology in the
hopes of getting into medical school. Although she missed out
on her dreams of becoming a doctor, Danielle went on to study
science at university and is now saving lives in a different way.
Malaria is an infectious disease that kills approximately one
million people each year. There is still no malaria vaccine, but
Danielle is trying to change that. She is currently testing one she
has designed to protect people from the disease. As part of the
tests, she infects volunteers with malaria parasites after
injecting them with the vaccine. Clinicians then monitor the
volunteers closely to see if Danielle’s vaccine stops the infection
or not. And as you can imagine, getting the permission to
deliberately infect healthy people with a potentially fatal disease
involves a lot of time-consuming paperwork! That’s not
something Danielle enjoys, but she knows that it is a necessary
part of her otherwise exciting work.
Danielle now works at Griffith University in Queensland, but
says the time she spent working in Papua New Guinea made her
realise how important it is to develop vaccines and determined
to succeed. More than 90% of people in Papua New Guinea are
at risk of developing malaria.
Although work keeps her busy, Danielle enjoys scuba diving,
travelling, reading and going dragon boating in her spare time.
Question 1
Enquire: Given the opportunity, what questions would you ask Danielle about her research and the work she has done in Papua
New Guinea?
Cosmos Lessons team
Education Editor: Bill Condie
Art director: Robyn Adderly
Profile author: Yi-Di Ng
​Lesson authors: Deborah Taylor and Daniel Pikler