One email. Three stories. Words for your kid’s age.
Your kid hears something at school and asks you about it at dinner. This is the answer, written three times over: once for a six-year-old, once for a ten-year-old, once for a sixteen-year-old. Free, and one email a day.
Ebola shots go to Congo’s doctors and nurses first
Congo began vaccinating its health workers against Ebola on Saturday in Bunia, the center of the outbreak. Doctors and nurses go first because they are the most exposed. The Ervebo shot worked in past outbreaks of a related strain, and 70,000 doses are approved for Congo. A trial of 20,000 doses will test it on this strain.
Far away in Congo, a sickness called Ebola is making people ill. On Saturday the doctors and nurses there got a shot to help keep it away from them. They go first because they are with the sick people all day, the way firefighters get their helmets before anyone else. The grown-ups have it.
Ebola is spreading in Congo faster than ever, and the people most likely to catch it are the ones treating it. So they get the shot first: 20,000 health workers. It worked on a cousin strain, so a trial checks it here. A smoke alarm from the old house: press the test button.
Who gets the vaccine first when there are 70,000 doses and far more people? Congo picked its health workers, the most exposed. Second: the shot is licensed for a cousin strain, and one doctor told the AP they don’t really have a choice. Is that fair to ask?