The line-up of world-class speakers from a variety of fields are geared to share their insightful ideas on this year's theme of Let’s Play Unsafe (Image: TEDxIITHyderabad)

The annual TEDxIITHyderabad, a collaboration between TEDx and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Hyderabad, will be held on March 21 from 10 am to 4.30 pm. This year, keeping in mind the COVID-19 pandemic, the event has been moved online and theme is “Let’s Play Unsafe.”

The event will focus on risk-taking in the present world context, “breathing life through the pandemic era, which is like facing a war-like situation from all fronts, pushing people to their extremes and rethinking comfort positions”, a statement from TEDxIITHyderabad said.

Here is all you need to know:

>> The theme this year is Let’s Play Unsafe and will focus on risk-taking being redefined in the present world context.

>> The TEDxIITHyderabad community consists of students from a variety of disciplines who “pledge to provide a memorable experience” and world-class speakers from a variety of fields.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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TEDxIITHyderabad returns on March 21: All you need to know

In view of the coronavirus pandemic, the event has been moved online this year and is themed “Let’s Play Unsafe”.

The line-up of world-class speakers from a variety of fields are geared to share their insightful ideas on this year's theme of Let’s Play Unsafe (Image: TEDxIITHyderabad)

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