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Aiko Mrs.Shaw Language Arts 18 February 2014 Stop the Threat

The social responsibility we as a society have to prevent the spread of pandemics is to keep ourselves clean (like washing your hands) and socially aware of how we affect our society. Pandemics are wide spread diseases that affect a large geographic area. These diseases can be very deadly, but there are some actions that you can take to decrease the threat of pandemics. Firstly, getting the vaccine will not only help you, but the others around you. Secondly, we have to be aware of our surrounding and what we are doing in it that can badly affect ourselves and the people around us. Thirdly, vaccine creating methods have been improved for the benefit of society, yet only a small amount of society actually gets vaccinated. Resources are increasing, production is improving, but social and personal responsibility seems to have stayed at a constant low. The first idea of being socially responsible is getting vaccinated. The range in how often you should be vaccinated varies for different diseases, but can range from once every 2 years to once every 6 months. When you dont get vaccinated, you are making yourself prone to diseases

Alvarez-Gibson 2 like the H1N1(swine flu) or the H5N1(bird flu). You may think that you not getting vaccinated only affects you, but in reality, it affects everyone. First off, influenza is contagious. If you catch the swine flu, you could easily pass it to someone else through air or liquid and now you both have it. Then there are two people to spread this disease and eventually, the flu becomes a pandemic. For example, the 1918 flu spread across the U.S., Europe and Asia and infected 500 million people and killed 30-50 million people.(Bet you didnt know: The Flu) There are some countries that dont have access to medicines and vaccines. The World Health Organization(WHO) has started an action plan to increase the supply of pandemic vaccines so that in the case of a pandemic, there wont be a high demand for them. Even though getting vaccinated is very important, only of the population actually takes the time to get vaccinated.

The second example of social responsibility is being aware of what ideas you are passing on to others and how your thoughts and actions sway others thoughts and actions. Some people may not believe that vaccines will actually immunize you, whether thats because you fear you might get the flu from the flu vaccine or you feel that new vaccines just havent been tested enough to be full proof, but I would recommend doing further research into your beliefs about the vaccine being unnecessary.(Could, Flu and Cough Health Center) Another example of being aware is staying clean and healthy and aware of some of the simple things you do that spread germs ( like not covering your mouth or constantly touching your face throughout the day), those germs could hold small samples of diseases and can spread onto other people. There are little things that we cant do too much about, for example, the poles on buses or the handles on doors that carry millions of bacterium. Some everyday items even hold Escherichia Coli (E-Coli) which is generally found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded animals (like us).(WebMD) Its a good idea to carry little hand-sanitizers so that after we touch all these

Alvarez-Gibson 3 germs, we wont be spreading them around. So, even if you dont get vaccinated(although you should), its a good idea to be aware of your surrounding and what youre doing in it, because you could be gaining or gathering thousands of germs that hold diseases that could cause serious infections such as kidney failure and possibly death.

As a third point, influenza spreads very fast and affects a lot of the population and scientists have found a method to help lower that threat of influenza. Scientists take a lot of time making and perfecting these vaccines, yet only 40% of the population gets vaccinated and influenza affects 20% of the population hospitalizing 200,000 americans a year. The Food and Drug Administration(FDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have created a new way of making influenza vaccines. Scientists have originally used the egg-based method of injecting the disease into an egg and taking the infected liquid surrounding the embryo, but this uses a lot of eggs(2 eggs per). The cell-based method of injecting the disease into the cell from a monkeys kidney, would be safer to people with egg allergies, would be very helpful in case egg availability drops and would speed production because cells, unlike eggs, can be frozen and preserved. This improvement in production is meaningless if there is no increase in the number of vaccinations per year.

Scientists and doctors have been improving and revising ways to stop the threat of pandemics, but we as a society have to take responsibility as well. WHO has started to try to increase the supply of influenza vaccines. The FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have found a more beneficial way to create the vaccine. Yet, the consumer society still has yet to improve their health habits.

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Other Sources "1918 Flu Pandemic Video." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.

Global Pandemic Influenza Plan to Increase Vaccine Supply 2006. Who.int. World Health Organization, Sept. 2006. Web.

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