Question

Other decisions about scientific claims can have a much broader impact.ENERGYarrow-10x10.png, environment, health, security - all of these issues have science at their core and have worldwide implications. Imagine that one of your friends says to you, "Hey, you took that science class this fall. How come I got the flu vaccine last year and still got sick?" Or, "Scientists have agendas like anyone else - I just don't believe that global warming is happening."

The question: How do you respond to such statements, now that you know a little more about what science is and how it's done? Write a short essay (one paragraph or so) that details your answer to one such question - either one of these or another that you've heard.

Answer 1

Facts about the flu vaccine:

One has to get the flu vaccine every year, the vaccine one takes this year is not going to be effective next year. This is because, the flu virus keeps changing its surface protein to create many sub-types of it. There are two proteins on the flu virus hemagglutinin and neuraminidase generally referred to as H and N proteins. There are 18 sub-types of  H and 11 sub-types of N, which means there can be 198 different subtype combinations. Each year, the CDC (center for disease control) makes an assessment of the prevalent strains and recommends a vaccine that has a combination of viral strains prevalent for that particular season. Therefore the vaccine that one takes is not the same and changes every year. And so you need to take the flu vaccine every year in order to not fall sick.