Public Health Trivia - Ep 2

Learning about public health, one trivia question at a time until you have an MPH. 

Topic: Vaccines

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to episode two of Public Health Trivia, a series where we learn about public health one trivia question at a time until you have an MPH. Twelve questions. There will be a pause after each question before the answer. Today's category vaccines. Ready? Here we go. Question one. The D TAP vaccine spelled DTAP is a combination vaccine recommended for children under 6 years old and protects against these three diseases. You must name all three diseases to get this point. The correct answer is tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis, also known as whooping cough. Question number two. If you are older than six years old, you probably need the TAP vaccine, spelled TDAP, which protects against the same three infections. The main difference between the D TAP vaccine and the T DAP vaccine is this. TAP vaccine contains a lower dose and is mainly to boost immunity. And therefore, babies with no immunity get the stronger D TAP vaccine while older children and adults get the TAP vaccine to continue boosting those immunities. Question number three. The MMR vaccine is another combination vaccine recommended for children given in two doses. The vaccine protects against these three diseases. You must name all three to get the point. Such as this timeline. Question number four. The first vaccine discovered against a bacterial pathogen was documented in 1881 by Louis Pasteur. It was a vaccine against this bacteria, which currently speaking is a relatively rare disease to get correct answer is anthrax. Louis Pasteur developed the anthrax vaccine in 1881. Question number five. According to the Cleveland Clinic, there are two vaccines that newborns receive, one within the first 24 hours and the other typically within one week. The vaccine that babies receive right at birth is this. The first vaccine is often accredited to Edward Jenner, who developed a method of vaccinating against this deadly disease. Correct answer is smallpox. Question number eight. History often credits Edward Jenner as the person who invented vaccines, but this is somewhat inaccurate as the practice dates back long before Jenner's studies. Jenner may be the first person to formally document this process and isolate a vaccine compound to vaccinate people en masse, but not the first person to understand the mechanism of inoculation. Compared to Jenner's method, the previous attempts at inoculation against smallpox were less desirable because of this. Previous attempts of inoculation against smallpox uses smallpox itself to inoculate against it, which still carries a small chance of causing full-blown smallpox and therefore death. In contrast, Jenner's method uses cowpox, which is a much less lethal virus, to inoculate against smallpox, and the breakthrough therefore being that this method of inoculation against smallpox is much safer. Question number nine. The COVID vaccine is the first mRNA vaccine to be administered to the public and is a massive breakthrough in medical science. So much so that these two scientists at the forefront of the mRNA vaccine research won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023. Another fun fact: Dr. Karako is a Hungarian American immigrant. Immigration is, or was, America's superpower. So many of our Nobel Prize laureates are immigrants or direct children of immigrants. And any attempts to attack immigration is essentially weakening American science because so much of American science is built on the backs of immigrants. Question number 10. In 2025, following a measles outbreak, this state became the first state to remove personal and religious exemptions for school vaccine requirements with Senate Bill 277. Correct answer is California became the first state to formally deny personal and religious exemptions for school vaccine requirements, with states like New York, Maine, and some others passing similar law shortly after as well. Question number 11. During the COVID pandemic, this many states implemented a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for K-12 students in school. In 2025, anti-vaxxers successfully got this state to enact the Medical Freedom Act, which prohibits vaccination intervention mandates at school. When researching this question, there's actually something that I could not figure out. Both Florida and Idaho are claiming that they were the first state to remove school vaccine mandates. Not something to be proud of, but we're dealing with Florida and Idaho here. From all accounts, Idaho was the first one to do it, but it's unclear whether they are removing the school vaccine mandates in the same way that Florida says they're doing it. There's not that many articles that I could find that directly put the two states' efforts side by side. If you know more about this, please let me know by emailing me. And that's all the questions. How'd you do? That's it for today. Tune in next time for more public health trivia. If you think there was an error in the episode, please don't hesitate to let me know by emailing me at everythingispublichealth at gmail.com. Check out our website for all updates and bonus material. And remember, public health is for everyone.