Some of you may feel this book out of place on my blog, and I agree to a large extent, considering it predominantly focuses on the science behind vaccine development and the creation of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. But having studied a Heath & Disease module for my degree I believe it does have some relevance to the geography curriculum, especially if your curriculum, like mine, contains a ‘Geography of Health & Disease’ topic.
The key geographical aspects that stand out, and could easily form the basis of a lesson, are:
- Disease prevention and preparation, or in COVID-19’s case a lack there of (pg 7), which is why countries need to consider the areas that limited our response to COVID-19; infrastructure, systems, global cooperation and collaboration (pg 283-284).
- Costs and benefits of globalisation. Globalisation led to the global spread of COVID-19 owing to mobility channels such as air and ship travel (Shrestha et al, 2020). But without it vaccine licensing and distribution around the world would not have been possible (see below).
Meanwhile the vaccine was being licensed and distributed around the world: by the end of January, it had been approved for use in numerous countries, including Brazil, Chile, India and South Africa. On 15 February, it was approved for use by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which was hugely important for global roll-out and access to the vaccine for low-income countries. Within a couple of weeks, the first shipments arrive to 30 more countries, including Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cambodia, and Moldova. By 23 April, one year to the day since the first vaccination had gone into the first volunteer’s arm, the vaccine had reached 172 of the world’s 195 countries, from Afghanistan to Yemen.
Pg 24
- Disease mapping. “Viruses do not respect borders, religious beliefs or political leanings” (pg 41). This would be a great opportunity to introduce a GISc-based activity!
- Healthcare inequality and vaccine deployment (pg 301-304)
By the end of 2021, about 72% of the world’s vaccine doses – meaning all vaccines, not just ours – had been deployed in the high and upper-middle income countries that make up less than half of the world’s population. Meanwhile, less than 1% of the doses had gone to the low-income countries where 10% of the world’s population lives. In more than twenty mainly African countries, including Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, less than 10% of the population had received even one dose.
Pg 302
And if that wasn’t enough you will also find a great case study summary of the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the creation, trial and deployment of the Ebola vaccine (pg 36-46).
Recommended age range: GCSE+, with some extracts potentially relevant to KS3 depending on your curriculum
Mrs Geography 