Ed Stubbs, a science teacher at Morpeth School in Tower Hamlets, developed a series of lessons after hearing students talk about vaccine conspiracy theories. His school serves the area of east London known as the “Covid triangle” which has seen some of the highest levels of coronavirus vaccine hesitancy in the country.
He worked with experts from Queen Mary University London on teaching resources which were picked up and developed by the Stephen Hawking Foundation and published on its website to form a new “vaccine initiative”.
Since Monday, more than 500 schools in countries including Brazil, China, Russia and the United States have downloaded the resources to help tackle vaccine hesitancy.
The National Education Union is promoting the teaching materials directly to its 450,000 members. Mr Stubbs said: “The charged debate about vaccination choices can make young people feel hesitant about voicing their concerns and seeking help in debunking false information so I decided to create a set of unbiased resources for use in schools.”
Mr Stubbs’s lessons have been developed into a set of 46 slides, which can be downloaded from the Stephen Hawking Foundation website.
