Penn Talks Science

Welcome to the second episode of Penn Talks Science for our theme “Vaccines”.

Now that the COVID-19 vaccine is available and being distributed, we are taking a look at vaccine nationalism. Currently, the countries with the highest vaccinations administered are high or upper-middle-income countries i.e., countries that were able to pay for doses. In this episode, we are hearing about past examples of vaccine nationalism and how they were overcome.

This episode was created in cooperation with the Science Diplomacy Branch of PSPDG.

If you want to go more in-depth, a good place to start are these references:

“‘Vaccine Nationalism’ Threatens Global Plan to Distribute COVID-19 Shots Fairly.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/vaccine-nationalism-threatens-global-plan-distribute-covid-19-shots-fairly.

From Vaccine Nationalism to Vaccine Equity — Finding a Path Forward

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2103614

Covid-19: WHO warns against “vaccine nationalism” or face further virus mutations

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n292

Welcome to the first episode of Penn Talks Science! This is the first episode of our first theme: The Theme of Vaccines. 

Before jumping into more in-depth topics, we wanted to make sure that everyone had an idea of what vaccines are. 

This episode just scratches the surface on the science of vaccines, but there is a lot more to learn. If you want to go more in depth, a good place to start are these references: 

Center for Disease Control: The basics of Vaccines

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/vpd-vac-basics.html

Center for Disease Control: mRNA Vaccines

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html

Center for Disease Control: History of Smallpox

https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/history/history.html

American Cancer Society: Cancer Vaccines

https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/treatment-types/immunotherapy/cancer-vaccines.html