Topic Overview: Key Terms & Themes

Here is an overview of some key terms and themes to aid you as you deepen your knowledge on the two topics for the conference. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any inquiries about the content or clarifications you'd like to make. 

Topic A

COVID variant: the COVID virus that has changed through mutation resulting in a new variant of the virus; certain variants emerge while others disappear

Omicron variant: a variant of COVID-19 which spreads more easily than the original COVID-19 and the Delta variant, and can spread to others even if the host is vaccinated or asymptomatic

C-TAP: attempted to promote sharing of vital intellectual property and data amongst vaccine & therapeutic manufacturers & developers to potentially accelerate manufacturing on a global scale

surveillance system: a system for ensuring immunization safety through detecting, inspecting, and reporting cases of COVID-19

contact tracing: attempting to identify people who have recently been in contact with a carrier of an infectious disease so they can be aware for their own safety & testing, and also be treated or quarantined

Key Themes

- Familiarizing oneself with the different models implemented worldwide to combat COVID and analyzing why certain models either succeeded or failed

- Exploring methods to encourage more equity in the universal distribution of vaccines, especially to bridge the acquisition gap among high-income and low/middle-income countries

Topic B

public health: the science of preventing disease and improving the quality of health of the population as a whole 

vector-borne diseases (VBD): a type of infectious disease transmitted by vectors like mosquitoes; examples of VBD include Zika virus, yellow fever, Lyme disease, dengue fever, malaria

water contamination: contamination of water, either due to human activities or poor infrastructure, which poses a serious threat to human health conditions (examples of water contamination related illnesses include typhoid, cholera, polio)

climate refugees: people who have been displaced and had to leave their home because of environmental impacts caused by climate change

particulate matter concentrations: amount of particulate matter in the air, which often comes from unclean air and poses a significant health risk when inhaled

Key Themes

- Deepening the understanding of different public health consequences of global warming, including tropical vectors, water contamination, mental health challenges, and disproportionate impacts on certain populations 

- Determining an order of priority to address climate-affected issues on Earth that collectively encompass uni-dimensional solutions to the problems

Note: Equity differs from equality

equality: each individual is given the same amount of resources/opportunities regardless of their background

inequity: recognizes each person has different circumstances and thus allocates more resources/opportunities to the underprivileged to reach an equal outcome