English Language FAQ

According to legend, provincial doctor Edward Jenner once overheard a young dairymaid boasting:  “I shall never have smallpox for I have had cowpox."​  This eventually lead to Jenner establishing that smallpox inoculation could provide protection against its far more lethal virological cousin. With a scientist's precision, Jenner called this process 'vaccination' - after vaccinia  the Latin word for cowpox. The cow connection proved great branding - the alleged vanity of the anonymous dairymaid has amused children for two hundred years. It also proved a gift to the original anti-vax movement, who were deeply suspicious of Jenner's devilish new life-saver.  

Covid test vial  Photo by  Vincent Ghilione  on  Unsplash Seroprevalence is the level of a pathogen (e.g. the virus Covid-19) found in a particular population - a country, city or region for example. This is measured by administering blood test to as wide a sample of that population as is feasible. Testing The accuracy of seroprevalence is dependent on a number of factors including the size of the sample tested as a proportion of the general population Photo by  Colin D  on  Unsplash the representative nature of that population in terms of age, sex, socio-economic conditions, ethnicity, size of household, number of social interactions, occupation etc. the accuracy of the tests, especially if these are physically difficult to administer. Covid-19 tests are quite physically intrusive as they require a throat swab. the accurate record keeping of the testers the potential for cross-contamination the estimated number of false positives and false negatives. Medical