Vaccine Shortage Fuels Clinical Trials

Corrigé

• Find out the problem and its cause. Justify your answer by quoting from the text.

• There is a shortage of/ a lack of vaccines, because of a

problem in the production of vaccine;

therefore, there isn’t enough vaccine for all the people who

want a jab, or even for those who need one because they

are ill or weak , for instance babies or infants (=jeunes

enfants), or the elderly(=les personnes âgées).

• Cf Quoting the text: “The dearth of flu vaccine in the United

States is having one small unforeseen benefit: people are

flocking to join clinical trials…”

•What solution did people find in order to curb this lack of vaccines?

Because of this shortage of vaccines, more and more people

turn to clinical trials in order to be vaccinated

• Guess the meaning of “since” (l.8) and “despite” (l.17).

• Since, as, because = puisque

• Despite, in spite of = malgré

 Part 2

• Who is the most subject to flu? Why?

• Children are the most subject to have flu and to pass on the

disease, because the virus can easily be spread through close

contact, speaking, sneezing or coughing. The person who

inspires the virus then becomes infected with it.•

• Pick out what is being tested by virologist Pedro Piedra.

• Pedro Piedra, A virologist, is trying to find out whether a

blanket vaccination of all school-age children in a given area

is/ would be necessary or not.

•

• Explain the difference between normal vaccine and the trial.

• • Normal procedure

• 1• • It normally takes over 6 weeks to immunize that number of people• • • 2• • Experimented vaccines are grown in hen eggs.• • • • •

•

• Trial• 1• • • Around 3,000 children have been vaccinated in 10 days

• 2• • • • Experimented vaccine grown in cells cultured in a lab• • •

• You may use link-words to compare these 2 types of procedure:

• while, whereas, • on the contrary, unlike, etc…

• Unlike/ Contary to the normal procedure which takes

over 6 weeks to vaccinate 3,000 children, it only took 10

days with the trial.

• It takes normally 6 weeks to vaccinate 3,000 children,

while /whereas it only took 10 days for the trial.

• Who is recruited to test vaccines?

• The people who are recruited are healthy adults below the age of 49;

Part 3• Explain the function of ACE inhibitors according to David Moskowitz. Do

they pose risk?

• ACE inhibitors are used primarily in the treatment of high

blood pressure. According to D. Moskowitz, they are safe

enough and pose little risk.

•

• How can you enrol for being tested?

• You just print a form taken on the company website, then

take it to your doctor who will give you a prescription for

some drugs; then, the company will send follow-up (= suivi)

e-mails to check on you.

Questions:

• Do people have to pay for these trails?? Or, on the contrary,

are they being paid for being guinea-pigs?

• What is researcher John Treanor’s conclusion?

• “I can’t imagine it’ll do anything but stimulate research” =

« je ne m’imagine pas que celà puisse uniquement stimuler

la recherche »

• So, he hopes it is not only going to stimulate research, but

also leads to some positive results.