Scientists developed vaccines (疫苗)against a new disease in less than 12 months. And yet，18 months after the first of these vaccines, against COVID-19, were put on the market, just 15% of people in developing countries have been fully vaccinated. Such unfairness costs lives and uncovers a long-standing problem that some countries have been forced to depend on others for life-saving science and technology. It is unacceptable, for example, that in Africa, a continent of 54 independent countries and 1.2 billion people, 99% of vaccines are from other countries.

The World Health Organization (WHO)is searching for a way to get vaccines to more people more easily.Last year, the WHO started a program called the mRNA vaccine technology center. The goal of the program is to develop and produce mRNA vaccines and treatments(for COVID-19 and other diseases) in developing countries from the technology used in developed countries highly successful COVID-19 vaccines.

More importantly，the cooperation (合作)between universities and companies based in developing countries is needed to realize the goal. On July 8th,the USA National Institutes of Health, where much of the research on mRNA vaccines was carried out, joined this program to help build vaccine technology centers in developing countries.

Besides the necessity of fairness, outbreaks would end sooner if every country could depend on its own defence. As Larry Brilliant，a scientist of the US National Institutes of Health who helps wipe out smallpox(天花)，told Nature，“Fairness is often thought of as a burden(负担)，but it is a strategic need in the battle against COVID-19.”

Paintings and sculptures can be a feast for the eyes of visitors to art museums, but today their viewing is also an unconventional treatment for people with mental illness.

Last month. a group of Canadian doctors started to write a new kind of prescription (处方), which gives patients free access to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). There, they will have a “relaxing. revitalizing experience” looking at the museum’s collection.

Nathalie Bondil. the museum’s director general. believes that being in contact with culture and arts can help with wellbeing. “In the 21st century, culture will be what physical activity was for health in the 20th century.” she said.

Each prescription will allow not only the patients but also their families or friends to go with them. In the museum. the visitor can appreciate the artworks, and take part in a wide range of activities including drawing, sewing (缝纫) and making a sculpture with recycled materials.

The new treatment is said to be the first of its kind in the world. But there’s increasing evidence that the display of visual art, especially art depicting (描绘) nature, can have positive effects on people with depression, anxiety and self-respect problems.

In 2017, the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing

(APPGAHW) also released a report stating that “the time has come to recognize the powerful contribution the arts can make to our health and wellbeing”.

Is it possible for art to improve overall health? We may not know the answer yet. But one thing is certain, more and more people today are persuaded by the idea that “art is good medicine”.

Flu vaccines (疫苗) work by arming the immune system with an enhanced ability to recognize and fight off the flu virus.Vaccines introduce proteins found on the surface of fu viruses，causing the immune system to produce antibodies that are ready to react when the virus attack.

However, flu viruses change frequently and can differ with time and from region to region.Even though current vaccines that people get annually produce antibody responses, these antibodies don‘t cross-protect. If thereis a new flu strain (流感病毒毒株) not found in that year’s vaccine, the antibodies that we generated last year won’t be able to protect us. So the pandemic(大流行) happens.On the other hand, if the vaccine matches the virus strain, the immune system will produce antibodies and kill the flu virus.

Luckily, in a study published in Cell Reports Medicine,scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madisondescribe a T-cell-based vaccine strategy that is effective against multiple strains of flu virus. The experimental vaccine, given through the nose, delivered long-lasting protection in the lungs of mice by using T-cels, which are special white blood cells that quickly remove viral invaders through an immune response.

The research suggests a potential strategy for developing a universal flu vaccine, "so you don’t have to make a new vaccine every year," explains Marulalsiddappa Suresh, a professor in the School of Veterinary Medicinewho led the research. The current flu vaccine has a serious weakness. Because each vaccine is only designed to resist one kind of virus strain. Once the virus changes, it could lead to a wide outbreak of flu.

By using T-cell immunity against multiple strains,it may be possible to develop a vaccine that is effective against a number of circulating flu viruses. In particular,the new approach calls into action tissue-residentmemory T-cells, or TRM cells，which live in the airways and lining of lung epithelial (表膜的) cells and fightinvading viruses. Like highly-trained soldiers，TRM cells serve as front line defense against infection. This undoubtedly gives a totally new way to fight the flu virus.