B1 – Intermediate
There are many infectious diseases that has been affecting all of us. Because it is not simple to fight infectious diseases, in some cases, reaching herd immunity is the only way to manage the said diseases.
Listen to the audio and read the transcript to learn more about herd immunity.
Discussion Questions:
- What is herd immunity?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of reaching herd immunity?
- What is your opinion about giving the disease to all people to make everyone immune to it? Do you agree to this way in order to deal with a health problem like coronavirus?
- What are some illnesses that affected people in your country previously and how were they managed?
16 replies on “Herd Immunity”
1. What is herd immunity?
The herd immunity reach when a high population percent is immune to sick disease.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of reaching herd immunity?
As advantages have us that the population can be immuned in short time. and disadvantages is that you require a important time for make a effective vaccine.
3. What is your opinion about giving the disease to all people to make everyone immune to it? Do you agree to this way in order to deal with a health problem like coronavirus?
Yes, I agree with this option. Because this allows to considerably reduce the reproductive time of infectious diseases.
I think if we all got vaccinated, we could quickly leave this disease behind. But, it is true that there are people in whom this is not possible, because they have other health problems that may be contrary to this solution; and doing so can be very dangerous to your life.
4. What are some illnesses that affected people in your country previously and how were they managed?
I’m not really sure, but I think the last illness that affected people in my country was influenza.
The government tested herd immunity vaccination for a high percentage of the population. Currently this disease exists, but it is not a problem for the population. Now a person who gets sick with the flu probably feels they have a common cold.
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1. when more than 80% become immune to a disease or infection
2. The advantage is that most of the population will be safe and sound , the downside is the process to get herd immunity, deceases,illness process, time , hospitals collapsed , money
3. I think the best way is the vaccine as science has shown during the years with other illnesses,the problem is that a secure vaccine takes more than 1 year to be developed
4. We had some ebola issues but it was very well managed by
health authorities
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1. What is herd immunity?
When the most people are immune to a disease.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of reaching herd immunity?
The advantage is that it will be more difficult to catch a disease but the disadvantages are that all people have to be infected at the same time and this is a big problem for the hospitals. Another disadvantage is the log time necessary to develop a new vaccine.
3. What is your opinion about giving the disease to all people to make everyone immune to it? Do you agree to this way in order to deal with a health problem like coronavirus?
I think that would be the fastest way to reaching herd immunity, because to develop a new vaccine I necessary many years. But if all people catch the disease at the same time the hospitals would be collapsed, like coronavirus.
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1. What is herd immunity?
Herd immunity is the situation when most people are immune to a disease.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of reaching herd immunity?
The advantages of reaching herd immunity: Those who are immune protect those who aren’t. (children too young to be vaccinated, immunosuppressed patients…).
The disadvantage is this process takes long time to reach immunity and in a lot of cases the hospital can be collapsed during a period of time.
3. What is your opinion about giving the disease to all people to make everyone immune to it?
If the disease is light is a good idea, but if the disease is severe is not a good idea because hospitals are collapsed and can be more deaths.
Do you agree to this way in order to deal with a health problem like coronavirus? I disagree. I think the best option is the vaccine.
4 What are some illnesses that affected people in your country previously and how were they managed?
The Flu is disease that affect many people all years. In Spain, every year immunosuppressed people have to get the flu vaccine. Last year the incidence of flu was very low due to covid and masks.
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What is herd immunity?
Herd immunity is when most people are immune to a disease
What are the advantages and disadvantages of reaching herd immunity?
The advantage is that people of the one community is immune y the disease doesn’t exist anymore.
The disadvantage is that hospitals are collapse about a lot of people get the disease in the same time.
What is your opinion about giving the disease to all people to make everyone immune to it? Do you agree to this way in order to deal with a health problem like coronavirus?
I prefer that the goverment make laws and strategics to control the disease while the vaccine is created because, the coronavirus
is a virus that kills many people.
I think that the goverment should help to the small business to put measures that permit control the deseases and they should invest in schools with effectives measures to try control the deseases.
I think that is very important regular measures until the vaccine will be created. A very important measure is invest in research.
What are some illnesses that affected people in your country previously and how were they managed?
One of the illnesses that affected children in my country is the hepatitis C and the solution is the vaccine, aditionaly, it is included in the vaccination schedule for all children. Another, illness is the cancer and this is managed trought research and treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy
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See a better way to write this sentence:
Herd immunity is when most of the people in a community have caught the desease.
The advantage is although the virus is in the enviromental, most of the people do not get the desease.
The disadvantage is this process takes long time to reach immunity.
I think this solution does not work because of the world sanity system is not prepared to assist so hugh quantity of cases at the same time.
Two years ago we coped to Ebola desease, isolating sicked people from the rest of the popullation. It solution was a very good way to deal this problema.
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Here are a few minor corrections on your spelling and sentences:
The disadvantage is this process takes long time to reach immunity.
> The disadvantage is that it is a very long process before reaching herd immunity.
or The disadvantage is that it takes a very long time to reach herd immunity.
I think this solution does not work because of the world sanity system is not prepared to assist so hugh quantity of cases at the same time.
> I think this solution won’t work because the global health system is not prepared to support a very high number of cases at the same time.
Two years ago we coped to Ebola desease, isolating sicked people from the rest of the popullation. It solution was a very good way to deal this problema.
> Two years ago, we coped with Ebola disease, isolating sick/infected people from the rest of the population. That solution was a very good way to deal with the said/that problem.
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What is herd immunity?
Herd immunity is the situation when most people are immune to a disease.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of reaching herd immunity?
The advantage is the infection is under control.
The disadvantages to acquire immunity are how it is reaching. For acquiring immunity is necessary that immunity system of the people are in contact with the microorganism for generating defences.
Then there are two possibilities:
One is mass infection that means many people can get sick at the same time but it can cause problems for hospitals.
The other is taking a vaccine. However, it takes a long time to produce a vaccine and to give it to all people.
What is your opinion about giving the disease to all people to make everyone immune to it?
If the disease is light is a good idea, but if the disease is severe is bad thing because it can block the hospitals and the patients can’t be treated.
It’s better that the infection goes slow. To get this evolution is necessary the people protect themselves and after a long time get immunity after infected slowly.
Do you agree to this way in order to deal with a health problem like the coronavirus?
No, It’s not a good idea due to the problems explain before
What are some illnesses that affected people in your country previously and how were they managed?
The flu and the AIDS
With the flu the health system do the vaccination to risk people and treat the patients during a busy winter month.
With AIDS only is possible prophylaxis and treated when is necessary. The vaccination is recently tested.
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Please see how these sentences can be improved by using more accurate word choices:
The other is taking a vaccine. However, it takes a long time to produce a vaccine and to give it to all people.
> The other option/scenario is discovering/coming up with a vaccine. However, it takes a long time to produce a vaccine and before it is safe to be administered to everyone.
Keep on going with your writing practice.
Herd immunity is the situation where the most of the population become immune to a disease. It is believed that to achieve this situation, it is necessary that at least the 70% of the population are immune. There are three ways to get this goal: a new vaccine, mass infection or social distancing measures.
The three solutions have their pros and cons. To find a vaccine seems the best way to solve the problem but it can last years of research and tests. Besides, when the vaccine is found it is the problem of stock since it might be manufactured for almost the whole population around the world.
Mass infection would be the fastest way to solve it but the most dramatic also. It means overwhelmed hospitals and a lot of deaths.
Finally, the social distancing measures are in the middle of the above mentioned solutions. However, it can not extend along the time since it will provoke the collapse of the economy and the number of unemployments will dramatically rise.
The most known illness in my country has been the Spanish fluencia (although it is said it started in the USA). It lasted two years before a vaccine was discovered. Meanwhile, the government set up some rules to be followed by the population such as avoid staying in closed public buildings or celebrating parties.
Impressive job on the way you put your thoughts into words. Please take a look at how this sentence can be improved a bit:
However, it can not extend along the time since it will provoke the collapse of the economy and the number of unemployments will dramatically rise.
> However, it can’t be extended for a long time since it will cause the collapse of the economy and the unemployment rate will dramatically rise.
You are showing a lot of improvements for sure. Well done!