Welcome to Week 2
Welcome to the second week of the course. This week, we will start by exploring how vaccines are tested to make sure they are safe prior to being used widely.
Rigorous safety testing is important to ensure that public confidence in vaccines is maintained and vaccine uptake is high. You will learn how vaccine safety is assessed and monitored, and appreciate specific safety concerns related to vaccine associated disease enhancement.
The second half of the week will explore how vaccines are assessed to see if they are effective at preventing infection or disease. We will explain the difference between vaccine efficacy and effectiveness and discuss how efficacy assessment of COVID-19 vaccines in Phase III studies is difficult.
Given that vaccines are one of our most effective public health interventions and play a vital role in ending pandemics, we need to ensure only safe, effective vaccines are used in the general population.
Before we start, take time to watch this introductory video which explains the principals of testing new vaccines in humans.
This is an additional video, hosted on YouTube.
A PDF summary of the video can be found in the downloads section below.
We hope you enjoy this week!
Vaccine Development: Finding a Vaccine for COVID-19 and Future Pandemics
Vaccine Development: Finding a Vaccine for COVID-19 and Future Pandemics
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