Useful English phrases: 10 mins to end Stunt man

They have a good body of work behind them-they have many years of experience in this field. This phrase is used for people in arts/people who write books/reports.

…where the principal actors aren’t required-a principal actor can be anyone with a speaking role on camera; however, it will depend on the nature of the production as to who counts as a principal actor.

…it doesn’t quite take the same toll on your body-something that takes a toll on your body ‘stresses’ the body and, over time, can damage muscle, joints etc.

CGI: computer generated imagery-computer generated effects in TV/film.

….doesn’t go into shards-piece of broken glass that typically has sharp edges.

5 mins to 10 mins stunt man interview

The work kind of picked up after that-this means he started to gain more work.

All I wanted to do was make a living from it-earn money to pay for bills, accommodation, and food.

What are the perks of the job-what is are the advantages and good things that come with working in that job.

Amazing sets/amazing scenery– set: film sets, where the film scene is shot. The scenery can be part of the set and also just located outside generally, e.g., the scenery in the countryside was amazing.

I’ve found I’ve had no end of stitches– something which sews the edge of a wound together.

In my downtime– downtime is time spent not working, this usually refers to weekends or holidays but can refer to time in between jobs when the work is on a contract basis.

I rehab everything- to rehabilitate, in this case, rehabilitation after injury.

Keeping myself fit-in this case, in good physical shape and strong.

That’s the pinnacle– a high point in the career of a stunt guy.

Useful English phrases from an interview with a stunt man first 5 mins

I’ve put up sentences with words in bold that I think people learning English might struggle with and I’ve explain what they mean. I’ve also explained useful general vocabulary e.g. vocabulary related to hobbies.

I grew up with a lot of old school TV shows like the A team-this term refers to something which was done differently in the past. Potentially in this context it means retro; something which is done differently now by still is kind of cool. However in other contexts old school can mean something which is outdated and needs to be changed.

Stunt man-a man who performs stunts as a double for an performer in films. Stunts can be physical actions which are complex to performer or acrobatic in nature and thus may be difficult for the performer/may be actions that can potentially result in injury if someone hasn’t had years of training.

It looked like the best, fun lifestyle-way of living

Hobby/sport vocabulary-

Fencing

“Fencing duel” by uwdigitalcollections is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Motor sports


“Motor cycle race” by ramnath bhat is licensed under CC BY 2.0
“Susie Stoddart Mucke Motors Sport AMG Mercedes C Klasse Brands Hatch July 2006 IMG_4768” by tonylanciabeta is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Martial arts/combat sports

“Martial Art Demo during Marine Day Times Square, May 27 – Fleet Week New York 2011” by NYCMarines is licensed under CC BY 2.0
“An English Martial Arts exam” by adamnsinger is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
“kids martial arts pittsburgh” by PKA Karate is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Swimming

“swimming” by Jim Bahn is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Trampolining


“Day 285 – Trampoline!” by lintmachine is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Gymnastics

“Men’s gymnastics” by William & Mary Photos is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

rock climbing

“Rock Climbing” by DannonL is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

scuba diving

“Palm Beach SCUBA Diving” by SteelCityHobbies is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Parachuting

“Palm Beach SCUBA Diving” by SteelCityHobbies is licensed under CC BY 2.0

I’ve trained in gymnastics but I had to specifically gear that towards, the requirements of the British stunt register– gear towards (make it suitable for a particular purpose-in this case eligibility for the stunt register).

..it wasn’t as people would imagine that as soon as your qualified your phone will be ringing off the hook– to have gained a qualification after studying an academic or vocational qualification. To ring off the hook-to have people phoning constantly.

An interview about the COVID with someone who works in a hospital (Level B1)

Interview with someone who works in a hospital about COVID

So, you’re in a hospital that treats COVID patients. Have you seen a lot of deaths from COVID? 

I haven’t seen it myself, but my job is to support the doctors and nurses who’ve seen it.

Support staff like me, I’m nonclinical, I’m in IT support, we don’t see it.

I don’t have any patient contact, but I go on to the wards where there are patients, and you see that this area is quarantined; you mustn’t go in there. The IT equipment has to be functioning; if any of its broken, it has to come out. If we go into those areas where there are COVID patients, we have to mask up, put on gowns and protective equipment. Several wards have had to be closed so that they can retrain the nurses. They had to retrain them to be intensive care nurses and move them into a ward that has been converted into an intensive care unit.

And then when conspiracy theorists come into the hospital and photograph these empty walls and say, look, there’s no overcrowding, there’s empty wards. It’s very annoying, and you can’t have security guards everywhere in the hospital stopping that happen. A hospital is a public building. People can get in if they’re determined. You know, a letter claiming you’ve got an appointment will get you in through the door. And it’s very disheartening to see.

These people who don’t know what they’re talking about, presenting what they think is evidence and other people who don’t know what they’re talking about, believing it, and eventually, it spreading into the mainstream, so ordinary people see this and get bombarded with it. They start to believe it, which is something that makes me very angry.

So, would you try to engage with conspiracy theorists, and do you have people who are close to you, like friends who are conspiracy theorists? 

There was someone who I know; I mean, this is a very highly qualified chef and a very talented musician, he’s not an ignoramus. If he wants to believe. He’s an intelligent man; I can understand this sort of thing occurs when you’ve not had the benefit of an education, but not him.

If you’ve been taught not to think, a lot of state education is being taught not to think. Don’t challenge anything. Just do what you’re told. But this man is clearly in his 50s, and he’s talented. A talented chef and musician he’s knowledgeable and can discuss lots of subjects. And then when he comes out with “It’s a hoax, it doesn’t exist”.

Well, I can, I can see the death it’s causing, and the security guards in the hospital say, stop, stop, go back COVID patient coming through. They’ve got to get a patient from the operating theatre to X-ray, which means walking down a corridor where members of the public will go. And that’s three security guards, one in front, one behind them, all going with the bed to make sure nobody gets within at least two meters or more of this COVID patient. You see that the increased work on the mortuary. And then an intelligent man doesn’t want to look at the evidence. No, I’m not going to waste my time engaging with someone who doesn’t want to see the evidence.

So, you’d never try to persuade anyone who has ideas about COVID which don’t conform to mainstream science? 

I will debate with people if I think there’s a point if I think I might achieve something meaningful.

Suppose you think that they are. They’re are not necessarily conspiracy theories, but they have their doubts about COVID or are vaccine heistant that sort of thing.

Yeah, people who have asked, you know, do you think this vaccine is a good idea? Do you believe it exists? But people who tell me it doesn’t, I am not going to bother.

It’s like people who tell me the moon is made of cream cheese, I’m not going to engage with someone who tells me that.

I debate both with the conspiracy theorists and the people who are just unsure. I think conspiracy theorists can change; my sister sent me this thing on the BBC, it was about this woman, who used to be an anti-vaxer, but she stopped being an anti-vaxer prior to the pandemic. 

And she has an idea like, you know, she’s saying, she can understand to some extent where they’re coming from, and she now tries to stop people, or she tries to debate with these people. People like this make me think its worth debating with conspiracy theorists. 

Many people I’ve talked to believe COVID exists, but they don’t think it’s that dangerous. It might not kill you, but you could give it to someone else, and it might kill them. I believe this complacency around COVID is dangerous, and going in and out of lockdown also causes a lot of disruption. 

Yeah, and I think that the impact on children when the government insisted on opening the schools earlier than all the expert advice said that they should be, and the children scared of having to go to school knowing that they could pick up the virus from another child. Some of them know that they can contract it from people with no symptoms and they might be scared that they would take it home and kill their parents. 

And children are very traumatised by having to go back to school when COVID hasn’t been beaten.

And the evidence, the advice from the World Health Organisation was quite clear that if you don’t take these steps, you will finish up with thousands of deaths. And that’s what happened. The government had the audacity at the start of this to say, you know, we’ll get herd immunity, there might be, you know, there will be a lot of old people will die, but… – as if that’s acceptable,

Did you see Boris Johnson lying about bodies piling up?

Yeah. I’ve seen the reports. And now journalists coming out and saying, yeah, I heard him say that, and I heard him say that, well, why didn’t you report it at the time? Why weren’t they focusing on reporting that? All over Europe, there’s been reports that yesterday several MPs of all parties have asked the speaker of the House to lead a debate to force Boris Johnson to stop lying to the House.

And this has been reported all over European media, but not on the BBC. So why are these people not holding the government to account?

It is interesting because it looks like the run-up to the election. They seemed to smear the Labour Party, and they didn’t do much to Boris.

Well, there’s many highly paid people at the BBC, and Jeremy Corbyn was going to make them pay a lot more tax. He was going to tax the rich people to pay for the things that the country needs; these wealthy people have been telling us that the country’s poor. They say that the country’s broke as they’re hoarding all their millions in offshore tax-havens.

So we have to take money away from poor people and make them more homeless because of the greed of the top 1%.

I think we’ve moved away from COVID.

I think it’s all related. It’s the reason why we’ve had so many thousands of deaths.

Because of corruption and cronyism

There’s an ideological position on the right-wing of politics. For the government not to do anything, everything has to be done by private finance, and in contrast, the New Zealand government took control and bought the personal protective equipment and the masks that were needed; our government said we’ve got to get a private company to do it, and the private company made a mess of it.

And many of the private companies have been set up on the fly by friends of the government or even members of the Conservative Party have set up companies and said, oh, yeah, I’ll source it. I’ll make a fortune sourcing masks from China and importing them. Instead of going to established companies, who’ve already got the connections, and billions have been wasted. By giving contracts to these people who have got no idea, who’ve got no experience doing this, and the consequence has been thousands of people have died.

Because they wouldn’t say, let the government tax Amazon, we will tax  Vodaphone, and we will spend the money on the masks to protect the people who voted for us. And that’s against their ideology. And I thought that Corbyn’s ideology, that’s what you would do. He would make Amazon pay tax on the billions of pounds earned in this country. And he would spend that money fixing the country.

An interview about Careers and teaching-phrases/specialised vocab

Academically gifted-in this case it means you excel in terms of academic performance

Academically inclined-its part of your personality to want to study academic subjects, maybe you are curious about a certain subject are or you just like to have a certain type of intellectual challenge

Core subjects-those subjects which are compulsory throughout each key stage of the curriculum

Peer pressure-pressure from ones peer group, a peer group is people who are the same/similar in one aspect such as age, background or social status

Qualifications-an exam, which is recognised as showing a certain level of ability or conferring on someone professional status

Aptitude-a natural ability in a certain area

Tone deaf-in this case, it means problems recognising different musical pitches

Innate ability-something someone is born with, aka natural ability and natural aptitude

Tell on you-in this case; it will have a negative impact

Mortgage-loan towards buying a house

Crop up-to appear

Switch off-to not pay attention to your work and to take a break

Apprenticeship-a programme which trains someone for a particular trade

Pastoral-emotional and social support

Special needs-disabilities that may be mental, psychological or emotional

Interview with Andre about Focusmate (Level A2/B1)

How did you get introduced to Focusmate?

I was reading an article on BBC News, and they were talking about how to beat procrastination, and they mentioned Focusmate.

How long you’ve been using Focusmate?

So, I joined maybe a month and a half, but I start I become a paid member about maybe three, four weeks ago.

And how many sessions you do a week?

I would say maybe. Maybe 15, I had 60 sessions within three weeks, so I do quite a lot.

And how do you find using Focusmate? I think it’s helpful because I get some idea of how long it takes to do a task. And eventually, I realise I do more work than I think I do because stuff takes a bit longer than I think it does to do. Also, if I do a task and finish in the allotted time, I realize I can do things to improve upon the work, or I can add things; I think it’s improved my work on certain tasks. Does that make sense?

Yes, it makes sense. Well, so what was the question? (note to self as an interviewer, don’t try to add too much after the question otherwise, the person will forget what you started with, plus it’s difficult to work out where the observation and the question overlap!!).

What has your personal experience of Focusmate been?

I mean, I find it keeps me focussed every time I do it, almost always. I get the work done. I realize people are having the same difficulties as me, doing their tasks and keeping themselves motivated. So, it has a positive value in terms of being more focused.

If I don’t use it, as was the case in the past because I didn’t know this existed. What I find my day becomes empty. But since I used it, I find I’m quite busy. It seems like I have met many people. I talked with a lot of people. Just having that moment of a few minutes’ interaction can make a huge difference.

I find that I’m more I feel like I’m accountable to someone. So, if I’m doing the task and I have a notification that pops up on my laptop, I won’t look at it, I might kind of glance at it, but I won’t deal with it until after the actual session.

Yeah, I feel the same is very mixed, very accountable to whatever you need to do. I agree. I feel the same.

 I mean, how do you feel about the system? Well, my what? I’ve done it. I’ve had enough. And they tend to get replaced because you can replace someone, with a click of a button, and replace the person within a few minutes. 

Oh, I found the system efficient. The algorithm works well. I never had a situation where it failed. So, I think they claim over a 99 percent match all the time. I haven’t had a situation where I didn’t get a Focus mate, sometimes they get replaced, but that’s how things are. If someone doesn’t turn up, you have the choice of trying to find someone else.

And it happened once. And I managed to be then matched again with another person. The system works well.

I talked to another person and said basically that half the time people didn’t turn up, but they quickly found a replacement. Is there anything else you’d like to say about Focusmate?

I think that everyone should try me work for some people. Yeah, I like the fact it’s so international you can meet people from everywhere and sometimes you have a chat for a few minutes. Even today, I had a few people I had this chat with this guy from New York who is doing a PhD like me. And we had a 15-minute chat afterward. I mean, that’s not the idea to network. But I had a chat with a few people. I had a conversation with another guy that studies in the same university as me in a completely different department.

I talked with this lady from Germany that was living in Bulgaria for 20 minutes, It sometimes makes your day, especially if you don’t have a lot of communication with lots of people.

You talked about people from your department and had a chat with people after you’ve had the session.

Yeah, it was great, I mean, like, I kind of I didn’t network with anyone, but I felt a connexion with some people there. I mean, the more you do it, you realise you get in touch with fascinating people.

I met people from Netherlands. I met, like, for example, a guy that was in doing a Ph.D. in drag queens and drag history in Britain. Well, he was a drag queen. It was super interesting.

I met a young Bulgarian German woman, med students, and Ph.D. students. Last Friday, I was working in the session with a clinician, a clinician in the US.

So, I mean, I was it was five pm here. And she was like there in the morning, and she was doing a job, and I was doing my job was incredible.

I’ve met a few interesting people, I didn’t really talk to the first few people after the session, but then I started to have a bit of a conversation afterward.

Like what?

There’s this one person who’s translating from Japanese English and quite impressed because I think Japanese is a complicated language; I attempted to learn Chinese. And I did a term of it. And I was hopeless lost (Asian languages are tricky as they are so different from English-anyone who learns an Asian language when they have a romance language as their first language is impressive in my book). 

It’s kind of interesting to hear what other people are doing. 

How many sessions have you done?

I think its about three. 

I’ve done about four, and I think. 

That’s not a lot

Not many I just started like a week or so ago. I’m going to get addicted now.

Yeah, it’s I mean, I find it very useful because I’m doing a Ph.D., and it helps me a lot and gets me to be accountable. At least I have someone even to say hi.

So, the matching thing do you generally get to people who do similar stuff to you then.

No, no. I get matched with all sorts of people.

Often, I end up being matched with people with whom I share a lot of things in common. I have like to teach the students. There’s lots of students, lots of students, lots.

And there’s also lots of like consultants. But there have been people a lot different from me, for example, an electrician, a lawyer. Someone I was matched with for the session their task was to have a shower.

To have a shower?

Yeah, because they probably had depression. And so the goal was they haven’t had a shower for quite some time. So, the goal was to achieve the task. And by the end of each session, they managed to accomplish the task. There was another person; the task was to read something and memorize a few things. I don’t know what it was exactly. Some people use it to exercise.

 Really?

So Yeah, exactly. You can use it for anything you can say. Well, I’m going to exercise to do a workout session. You don’t have to be in front of the camera.

I was going to say, not sure about exercising in front of the camera.

Yes, you can. That’s what people do. But you don’t always have to be in front of the camera say you have to do some tasks like cleaning. You may not be on the camera all the time.

There was a girl who had to do this task, and it was something like a chemistry project or something, and you know, she had she was sharing a story because there’s an option where you can share your screen. And so, I was not looking at what she was doing, but the fact she was sharing the screen gave her a sense of accountability, that she was accountable because someone was looking at what she was doing. So, she had to do something. She was rushing to do whatever she had to do. And so, yeah, she was sharing on screen so you could watch the work she was doing as if someone was spying on her to make sure she had to.

Interesting. I didn’t meet one person who was using flashcards is kind of quite similar to the sort of thing you talk about, memorising stuff. They were writing their flashcards.

I’ve been like with all sorts of people from all over the world for you.

How would you say it’s increased your productivity? Do you work more hours or just have a lot more focus on the hours you do work?

I work more hours because it motivates me to do them because otherwise, I would have a break every 20 minutes, and now, I have a break every 50 minutes. And sometimes I feel, you know, let’s see how much we can do within 50 minutes. Sometimes I even rush because I want to say to the person, I have achieved the goal.

So, its a bit of both being more time doing an activity and sometimes being more productive and humanised. Meaning is not like these apps that count the time. There is the human element to it, which to me is very important.

Anything else you want to add about Focusmate?

The only way you can understand this by doing it is by doing it a lot. So, when you do maybe like nine sessions on a day in a day or five sessions and do it for a few days, and you will see a huge difference.

You will see what I mean because I think doing it only occasionally, you don’t feel the palpable effects of what I mean by doing it, the magic.

So, I was amazed. I mean, it seems like it has been around since 2016.

And there is a very active Facebook group.

Yeah, there’s not much more to say. The proof is in the pudding.

The other thing I wanted to say that I like about Focusmate. And I was thinking about this today. I find Zoom and Microsoft teams and all these other companies that to teleconference like awkward.

You have to download an app, and you have to install it on your computer.

And I found like Focusmate is such a simple idea it’s on the browser. I mean, I think this is the type of future you want everything through the browser. It’s just a simple system and works. I wish they had more of the system where everyone can join the browser. And it works its, simplicity, effective simplicity, it’s also quite reliable.

I know what you mean; sometimes zoom is so unreliable. 

Thoughts on COVID, the vaccine and a possible survey (Level B2/C1)

Earlier this year, my friend invited me to a Facebook group. The Facebook group was about questioning the official line on COVID. I am pretty sure she didn’t believe in the conspiracy theories put forward by the group. I think she joined in part as it’s a novel situation it’s something unnerving as it’s unknown. This kind of situation hasn’t been encountered in our lifetime (hopefully, it won’t be something we encounter again for a while); this will depend on global warming and how we treat livestock).

Anyway, being added to the group is why I started to ask questions about what people thought they knew about COVID. I began to look at things shared in the group and investigate where these were coming from; for example, someone posted a picture that they said was related to increased surveillance and COVID. After a quick google image search, I saw it was nothing of the kind; it was an image associated with a protest in China against an increase in surveillance and happened before autumn 2019, so before COVID was even discovered. I began to point out discrepancies in the group’s information and anything misappropriated, like the image from China. Some people in the group were also challenging the narrative put forward, but people that the whole COVID thing was a conspiracy. While in the group, I argued about, among other things, social distancing and why it was necessary. At one point people from the group targeted Bill Gates, and when I asked them why they said, look, this guy had posted a meme exposing Bill Gates. The obvious response to the meme was, where is the source. Even though there were people open to arguements and willing to consider other views, a number took a lot of things at face value and never actually followed through and looked up the source of information they consumed online.   I began to wonder if maybe it might be a good thing to educate myself and others re COVID measures, hence the interview with the virologist, to increase understanding.

A few months after joining the group, the admins had an overhaul. They booted out anyone who didn’t follow the narrative that COVID was a conspiracy theory, so I was expelled. However, it did have me wondering 1) how can we tackle vaccine hesitancy and 2) why some people were so fixated on certain theories and not open to any challenges wrt their mindset, and 3) who were the people behind the alternative narratives of COVID.

For the first one, the answer is we can have people talk about their experience with the vaccine and make it seem less scary; something I’ve started on my channel with the vaccine vox pops playlist (my first interview below):

For the second one, I did a survey (although there is information out there, I wondered if I could get some different perspective. I also thought it might be a good exercise for me to design something). I started with a kind of pilot survey (designed with the help of my sister, & Susan W), which I posted on my Facebook page. One of the first things in terms of the survey results was that I could have designed the questions slightly better, so it’s back to the drawing board to create survey number 2. The other problem is that most of the respondents are from my Facebook page (I think maybe some kind of incentive like a prize draw might be good next time). As one respondent pointed out, selection bias is the problem as my Facebook friends are likely to have certain characteristics in common.

Apart from survey design, the other thing about having people complete a survey was to make me think about certain aspects of the COVID crisis:

while I am aware that the more people are vaccinated, the better it is in terms of stopping the pandemic, an area I had thought less about was how the vaccine would be distributed in poorer countries which is something one of the respondents bought up.

I asked my sister the font of all knowledge, and apparently, the answer is that an organization called COVAX is coordinating the effort to vaccinate poorer countries.

I plan to do more interviews with people who’ve been vaccinated and want to change the questionnaire and distribute it on a large scale. When I have updates and survey data, I will summarise it here.

Interview with someone who has received the COVID vaccine

When did you have the vaccine?
I had my last vaccination on Thursday; it was the Pfizer one.
The vaccination process was excellent; everyone there was so friendly, it was rapid, we didn’t have to wait too long.
You have people running around with ipads helping you check-in, and you have a 15 mins slot. You fill out a form, and they send you to a socially distanced waiting room.
They write your vaccination on a card; it looks a bit like a business card; they have the date of the first vaccination, the vaccine you had and the batch code. Then, on the same card, they have the second vaccination date and the batch number again. With each vaccine, they have the date it was given and your name. This is so that if anything goes wrong, they can trace it back to the batch.


Did you have any side effects?
The first one, I had no effects at all. With the second vaccine, my arm ached for a day or two.
What would you say to people who are thinking about having the vaccine?
I would encourage other people to have the vaccine, so they protect themselves and other people. My daughter had long COVID, and she had a swollen heart. My cousin had it, and he ended up in the hospital and had breathing problems afterward. Getting COVID isn’t a good idea; you have fewer side effects from the vaccination than from COVID.

Why did you personally get the COVID vaccine?
It protects the whole family. No one wants to get COVID and kill their parents or their grandparents.
Before COVID, my husband said that I stopped breathing during sleep. I went to the doctor, and he asked why I was there; I said that my husband said I stopped breathing for 40 seconds during sleep, and it wasn’t long enough. After which, he referred me to the sleep apnea clinic, and I tried this machine which was tricky to use. After COVID is over, they are giving me a device to stop my jaw from falling backwards and stopping me from breathing; this only happens with I lie on my back. The doctor who looked at me for sleep apnea put my name down, and I got the vaccine quite early.
I had it, so I don’t kill my husband as it has CLL (a type of leukaemia) and no spleen, I had the vaccine as I wanted, and I wanted my husband to live (sometimes). I also had it partly to travel to see my brother who is out in Thailand, cause he’s a dirty old man 😉. After having the vaccine, I had a photo taken off it in case it helps with going abroad. If you don’t get your vaccine, I think it will be very difficult to go abroad. I think further down the line, its going to extend to things like pubs.
I would highly recommend that everyone get the vaccine. My husband has CLL and no spleen, and he had no reaction whatsoever.

Interview about the vaccine (Level B1)

Interviewer: What did you initially think about getting the vaccine?
Interviewee: I initially thought it was very rushed, so I wasn’t interested in getting it.
I was also in contact with a particular person who had certain views about the vaccine. I think being a bit isolated can affect your evaluation of things, and it’s best to be able to speak to a range of people to broaden your way of thinking.


Interviewer: What changed your mind?
Interviewee: Speaking to family members and watching a talk on YouTube that was among my suggested videos.


Interviewer: What did your family say to you?
Interviewee: It was my mum getting the vaccine. My mother also said that people get vaccinated all the time against illness, e.g., when traveling to different countries and getting vaccinated against yellow fever.

Interviewer: What was said in the talk online that changed your mind?
Interviewee: The guy who was giving the talk said that people are dying and you don’t want your negligence to be part of the reason that people are dying.


Interviewee: What were your thoughts on having the vaccine?
Interviewer: I trust the vaccine as they have to go through a more rigorous process compared to other drugs.

Interviewee: What do you mean by that?
Interviewer: Say, for example, you compare the vaccine to a cancer drug. With both vaccinations and the cancer drug, you ideally want as few side effects as possible. However, with the cancer drug, you are willing to accept some adverse side effects or risk of harm if the benefits are sufficiently great, e.g., saving someone’s life or prolonging it. Whereas with a vaccine, you are giving the treatment to many people who at the point of administration may be perfectly healthy. Thus, the threshold that is accepted for side effects when it comes to the vaccine is higher.
Any side effects that the vaccine has will be the immune system responding however that is the sign that the vaccine is working.

On a white curriculum words/phrases

What we’re not trying to say is stop reading Shakespeare or stop reading any of those people, obviously keep reading them but the idea that somehow that their contribution is more important than or should be studied to the exclusion of works from other parts of the world and from non-white people that’s where the racism is baked into the system

Baked into the system-in this case its part of the education system

Things like black history month do happen in this country, but its still very tokenistic 

Tokenistic- a gesture that lacks substance/does nothing to really rectify the problem. In the case of black history month, it’s only a month focusing on black history and not changing the curriculum, which might educate people fully.

We need to be able to widen the field and say that there is a whole world more or out there.

Field-in this case, it relates to ‘fields of study’ and non-white people’s place in them, e.g., not just looking at black history month/slavery, looking at the contribution of non-white people across a range of fields such as science, literature, etc.