BENGALURU: To tell the story of the global effort to develop vaccines at an unprecedented speed during the Covid pandemic, an international travel exhibition Vaccines Injecting Hope was inaugurated at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM) on Tuesday. It will be open to the public till February 28.
A specially designed exhibition bus will also travel to areas in and around Bengaluru to raise awareness on the importance of vaccines in saving human lives. The expo, a collaboration between the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) and the Science Museum Group, London, aims to highlight the remarkable advancements in vaccine technology during the pandemic.
Detailing the journey from the arrival of new viruses and vaccine design to trials, approvals, mass production, and rollout, the exhibition will showcase how modern techniques allowed the rapid development of vaccines in less than a year a stark contrast to the decades required in the past.
The exhibition was inaugurated by Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chairperson, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, in the presence of British Deputy High Commissioner Chandru Iyer.
A standout element of the exhibition is the art installation titled ‘Through the Lens’, commissioned by the British Council and created through a collaboration between Indian sculptor Sushank Kumar and London playwright Nigel Townsend. The artwork explores the historical and contemporary significance of vaccination.
The event also marked the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the NCSM and the Science Museum Group. The five-year agreement aims to consolidate and enhance the partnership between the two institutions.