{"id":23439,"date":"2017-03-01T10:16:15","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T15:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/52.229.127.56\/?p=23439\/"},"modified":"2021-02-17T10:45:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T15:45:31","slug":"doctor-hopes-immunity-comic-takes-sting-out-of-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/uncategorized\/doctor-hopes-immunity-comic-takes-sting-out-of-vaccines\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor hopes immunity comic takes sting out of vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Kumanan Wilson teamed up with Algonquin College students to create <\/em>Immunity Warriors, an alien invasion comic book that teaches kids about the immune system. He launched the comic with the help of his son\u2019s Grade 7 science class. Photo by John MacKinnon.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a father, Dr. Kumanan Wilson<\/a> understands that no kid likes getting a shot in the arm. That\u2019s why the physician dreamed up a comic to explain how vaccines help the immune system fight off \u201calien\u201d invaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope this online comic will make learning about health more fun for elementary school kids, and help them see vaccines in a more positive light,\u201d said Dr. Wilson, an internal medicine specialist and scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and professor at the University of Ottawa.<\/p>\n

The public health researcher was inspired to create the comic after being asked to give a presentation about the immune system and immunization at his son\u2019s Grade 6 science class. At the time, the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens <\/em>was in theatres, and Dr. Wilson decided a space invasion theme would make the topic more interesting for young listeners. He was right.<\/p>\n

\"J-Mar-Immunity-3-graphic\"<\/p>\n

In <\/em>Immunity Warriors: Invasion of the Alien Zombies, cell cities are attacked by virus spaceships, and scientists and the military race against time to discover how to stop them.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids were really engaged with the presentation, and were able to understand some complex scientific concepts,\u201d he said. \u201cI started to think about how I could use a similar theme to reach a wider group of kids about the importance of vaccination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Wilson took his idea to Algonquin College\u2019s Health and Wellness Research Centre<\/a>, where four senior students brought his idea of a compelling digital comic to life.<\/p>\n

In Immunity Warriors: Invasion of the Alien Zombies<\/em><\/a>, cell cities are attacked by virus spaceships, and scientists and the military race against time to discover how to stop them.<\/p>\n

When Dr. Wilson returned to his son\u2019s school to launch the comic, students in the Grade 7 science class immediately dove into the sample copies they were given. They also had the chance to help name the comic\u2019s four main characters.<\/p>\n

\"J-Mar-Immunity-2-many-students\"<\/p>\n

Grade 7 science students helped name the comic\u2019s four main characters. Photo by John MacKinnon.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Wilson hopes the comic might be incorporated into the educational curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we can use digital media to make science and health education more fun. At the same time, we can combat future vaccine hesitancy by creating positive attitudes about vaccination amongst children,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Wilson is also the founder of The Ottawa Hospital mHealth Research Team and creator of CANImmunize<\/a>, a digital immunization record for Canadians. Immunity Warriors<\/em> can be found in the Kid\u2019s section on CANImmunize, along with games and videos, and on the web at www.immunitywarriors.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Kumanan Wilson teamed up with Algonquin College students to create Immunity Warriors, an alien invasion comic book that teaches kids about the immune system. He launched the comic with the help of his son\u2019s Grade 7 science class. Photo by John MacKinnon. As a father, Dr. Kumanan Wilson understands that no kid likes getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":23442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}