Schoolgirl helps develop vaccine education film

A 16-year-old schoolgirl, in conjunction with healthtech company Cognitant Group, has created an animated video to educate the public about vaccinations.

The schoolgirl chose Cognitant for her work experience as she wants to study medicine when she leaves school. With support from Cognitant’s medical writing and clinical advisory team, she wrote, designed and produced the animation as part of this work experience.

From essential childhood immunisations like the MMR to the flu vaccination, there are concerns that vaccination uptake will drop in the aftermath of COVID-19, with people being afraid to visit clinics to get routine vaccinations.

Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisations at Public Health England, has said: “The national immunisation programme remains in place to protect the nation’s health and no one should be in any doubt of the devastating impact of diseases such as measles, meningitis and pneumonia. During this time, it is important to maintain the best possible vaccine uptake to prevent a resurgence of these infections.”

The Department of Health is hoping to extend the flu vaccination programme to all those above 50 (instead of just those above 65-years-old) if vaccine supply allows. It is imperative that we increase flu vaccine uptake. By ensuring that people do not get flu, we are reducing the risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19.

For a number of years flu vaccine uptake in the UK has not met targets set by the World Health Organisation which aims for more than 75% of eligible groups to be immunised. Last year (2019/20) flu vaccine uptake was at 70.6%.