A FREE computer game created by Oxford boffins allows players to battle an international pandemic by using their own vaccine.

Created by researchers at the University of Oxford’s MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, The Vaccination Game allows players to role-play the deployment of a virtual vaccine, to help to halt the global spread of a viral pandemic.

Professor Hal Drakesmith and colleagues, who are part of a research network focussing on immunising babies and mothers to fight infections in low and middle-income countries, had the idea of developing a game.

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Professor Drakesmith said: “Our game isn’t intended as a modelling or simulation tool, or meant to predict real-world scenarios.

“Instead, we hope it’s educational, as it illustrates how vaccines can work on a global scale and shows that precisely how a vaccine is deployed across populations can be crucial to its effectiveness”.

The virtual vaccine in the game is available in limited doses per week and the player must decide who to vaccinate in each of 99 cities worldwide that are part of the game.

At the end of the campaign, the player receives a report as to how well they played the game and how many lives were saved by the vaccine.

The game can be played online here: https://bit.ly/3d5dwh0