Hi there! My name is Anika and this is my 2020 Breakthrough Challenge Submission! I hope that you find this video informative and interesting!
Hi there! My name is Anika and this is my 2020 Breakthrough Challenge Submission! I hope that you find this video informative and interesting!
Music:
Breakthrough Challenge:
COVID-19 Information:
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Notes:
Hi there!
Since December of 2019, Our world has been facing a major health crisis. Declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, the novel coronavirus has affected the lives of millions, putting many out of work and school as well as taking thousands of lives. A known fact about Covid19 is that it is a virus that affects the respiratory system, unfortunately, at this time there are also many unknowns. Not only regarding Covid19 but also how we should move forward. At the moment the world and world organizations are scrambling to find a vaccine or a successful treatment for this virus. To understand how and why vaccines are important we must look at the immune system reacts to foreign particles such as viruses.
Let’s familiarize ourselves with the different components of the immune system. Say parts. Now that we have these parts down we can look at the immune system as a whole. There are three main levels that our body has developed to protect itself.
our first defence level is external. Our skin, the largest organ is tough, dry and unwelcoming to any invaders it also sheds constantly to get rid of bacteria. Our eyes, noses and mouths are also perfect places for foreign particles to enter, however, our eyes secret enzymes, our ears have ear wax and our noses and throats have mucus and hairs which trap particles. If we swallow viruses most will be killed by the high pH of our stomach acid.
As I mentioned, our second level of defence is non-specific. This means that our immune system will respond to many different things at the same time at a general level with Phagocytic cells, inflammatory responses and fevers. Phagocytic cells can be divided into two subsections, monocytes and neutrophils, monocytes develop into macrophages which then digest invaders and the neutrophils which can pick up signs of damage and then engulf the invader. With the inflammatory response, histamine, a chemical produced in the body, responds by increasing blood flow to the affected area. Finally, our bodies can induce fevers. Fevers are controlled by our brains and they increase the activity of the immune system by increasing our bodies Temperature. This response decreases the chance of survival for invaders.
Our third and final response is very specific to the invader. This is one of the most important functions that our immune system. In this response, there are two types of cells that are essential those are the T and B cells. T and b cells are both lymphocytes or white blood cells. When a helper T cell identifies a harmful invader it will release lymphokine which is a signal for more help. The lymphokine will then causes the production of B cell and killer T cells. B cell is involved in the production of antibodies to match specific antigens, one of its jobs is to increases the size of the invader as well as flagging so that the job of killer T is easier. Killer T cells will then puncture cells killing them. To stop this exhausting process suppressor T cells are released to slow the offence. After this Memory B cells are implemented, Memory B cells extremely important as they store information about the invader for the future creating immunity.
The basic idea beside vaccines is to expose the immune system to small fragments of the virus so that our immune system will create antibodies intern creating immunity. Right now there are many potential vaccines being tested and once one is found to be successful the return to normal will hopefully speed up!
Thanks for watching!
