Our main problem is why do different people take different types of vaccines

We used different types of trusted sources and cross referenced to make sure that the facts were real. We also contacted pharmacists for extra point of view.

Summary of Our Project

 

You probably have gotten a vaccination before but have you ever wondered WHY? Well we have and here is what we did about it.

We put up 2 posters in pharmacies in Hillhurst asking whether people choose to get vaccinated in order to protect themselves and their families (Personal Protection) or whether they do it to protect their community (Collective Responsibility). We used dots on our poster questionnaires to collect the data.

In Heathers Pharmacy, out of 17 answers for the Covid-19 vaccination only 5 people took the vaccine to protect the community while 12 people took the vaccine to protect themselves and their families. As for any other reasons it turns out that people who go to Heathers Pharmacy are taking vaccines to protect themselves and their families. Similarly for the Influenza vaccine, out of the 16 answers, 11 did it for themselves and family, 4 for the community and one person took it for another reason.  Meanwhile in ZenRx pharmacy out of the 26 people who replied for COVID vaccine, it was heavenly split.  Putting it all together, the main reason we identified as to why people choose the COVID and Influenza vaccines are for personal protection (protecting themselves and their families)

We think this is important information that can be useful to pharmacies in the future when they communicate to people trying to motivate them to get vaccinated and therefore protected.

What Do Pharmacists Have To Say About Vaccines

 

We wanted to find out what pharmacists' perspective on vaccines is, so we created a questionnaire to ask a pharmacist at Heathers Pharmacy. The pharmacist was willing to answer the questions: we wanted to understand their perspectives on our project.

 

The summary of their response is below:

Pharmacists found our project to be helpful to them because they were also interested in understanding why people choose to get vaccinated.

 

They identified that the main reason people refuse vaccines is if they have had a reaction to the vaccine in the previous season around Influenza, but they  felt that more people were less comfortable with the COVID vaccine this season compared to other seasons.

 

When asked, they identified that an interesting future application of our research would be doing a similar project with health care professionals such as  Doctors and Nurses. 

 

                                     
What Does A Vaccine Do

Vaccines are a way to make your body build protection to a disease without having the disease itself 

Once you have had your vaccine, antigen presenting cells circulate around your body looking for the vaccine. When one of your antigen cells or antigen presenting cell (APC) finds the vaccine, the APC will consume it. The APC will leave some of the antigen on its outer wall and other cells in the immune system can detect that. The APC with the antigen would now report to other cells in the immune system. Now that these cells are activated, they now alert other cells in the immune system to come fight the antigen. 

One more weapon the immune system has includes the B-cells. The B-cells can recognize the antigen when activated by the T-cells or  just by encountering the antigen itself. 

Another weapon the immune system uses to beat the antigen are the plasma B-cells. These are the antibodies that the body uses against the antigen. These antibodies are proteins that bind with the antigen and destroy it or neutralize it. 

A couple vaccines include a weakened virus or bacteria. That is where the killer T-cells come in. Their job is to find and destroy the virus. So if the immune system is triggered by the same antigen again it will respond with more strength and accuracy to destroy 

 

              How is a vaccine effective

 

How effective a vaccine is, tends to be reflected in how well it protects against the disease or severity of the disease.

 

So for a vaccine to be effective it has to enter the immune system immediately and teach it how to fight the disease. 

 

Vaccine effectiveness depends on the vaccine, the person it is meant to protect and whether the virus or bacterium it prevents changes in a seasons

 

Person age matters: The age of the host along with underlying present conditions (cancer & diabetes) and prior infection heavily slows down the efficiency of vaccines.

 

In order for vaccines to be licensed and authorized they must have an effectiveness rate of at least 50 per cent.

 

After being approved the vaccine is still under close monitoring. 

 

What Is In A Vaccine

 

Inside of a vaccine we have a wide assortment of components:

 

Adjuvant:  is a chemical added to a vaccine to enhance the resulting response from the immune system. One more thing an adjuvant does is control the amount of Antigen or vaccine per dose to reach immunity and to help out individuals with immunity depression. 

A few types of these Adjuvants  that Canadian pharmacies use include Aluminium salts, AS04 and MF59. 

Vaccines also include preservatives to stop serious contamination and bacterial and fungal infection. 

Some more substances that can be found in vaccines include eggs, yeast and amino acids that are crucial for the growth of viruses and bacteria. 

There are also small amounts of chemicals like potassium or sodium salts that help maintain the quality of the antigen. 

For the flu vaccine, pharmaceutical companies put a small amount of influenza virus protein into the vaccine. 

It is the same process with the COVID vaccine, but it contains a small amount of COVID mRNA

 

History of the COVID and Influenza Vaccines

 

Prior to 2019, Covid was not heard of. At this time, there were a lot of other viruses to deal with but COVID is the newest virus the world has seen! In December 2020 the vaccine arrived in Canada. In the next 1-2 years it was approved for kids

 

The Influenza vaccine has a longer history: In 1892, patients were coming in with a virus that German scientist Richard Pfeiffer, isolated a small bacteria from the noses of sick patients. He called the virus Bacillus Influenzae (turns out that was NOT the influenza we know today but an actual bacterium called Hemophilus Influenzae)

In the 1930, the virus was completely identified as the common flu. In 1945, with the help of Thomas Francis and Jonas Salk at the university of Michigan, the first vaccine for the flu was invented. This vaccine saved millions of lives. We are extremely lucky to have these vaccines easy to get. 

 

Both these vaccines are changed every year by scientists to as to reflect the most common strains of the viruses circulating in the world

    

Research Question: 

What motivates people to get their Covid and Influenza Vaccines? Looking at personal protection versus collective responsibility

 

 

Methods

 

We chose two pharmacies near our school to conduct our research: Heathers pharmacy and ZenRx pharmacy and put up 2 posters that ask “ Why do you get your Covid and Influenza Vaccines”

 

Questionnaire posters were developed and posted in two pharmacies for 2 weeks and responses collected

 

Dots were counted and then data was analyzed

 

Conclusions

 

For both Covid and influenza vaccines the main reason was personal protection. 

In the future, pharmacies  could use the knowledge that people choose this vaccine for  personal protection as a main vaccine motivator in the future for anti vaccinators.

 

Limitations

We only used two vaccines

Only two pharmacies were used  

The project started late in the respiratory viral season we only had a limited time to talk to the pharmacist

 

Our conclusion is that most people get their vaccines to protect themselves and their famalies.

Alberta Health Services https://myhealth.alberta.ca/topic/immunization/pages/influenza-imm.aspx

John hopkins medicine  Vaccines    https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/vaccines 

Canada.ca  Contents of immunizing agents https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/canadian-immunization-guide-part-1-key-immunization-information/page-15-contents-immunizing-agents-available-use-canada.html   

 John hopkins medicine  Vaccines  https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/vaccines

Canada.ca Contents of immunizing agents in Canada    https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/canadian-immunization-guide-part-1-key-immunization-information/page-15-contents-immunizing-agents-available-use-

https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Influenza.aspx

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses-types.htm

https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/history-of-influenza-vaccination

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/history-disease-outbreaks-vaccine-timeline/covid-19

https.www.paho.org/en/topics/coronavirus-infections/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-pandemic

 

I would like to thank the pharmacist at heathers pharmacy, Mrs Underdahl and both our parents for supporting us through this project. I would also love to give a big thank you to the Vaccine Team for letting us borrow their tools.