It costs less than forty dollars and is no bigger than your thumb.

 

Sometimes it’s the little things.

 

Those tiny vials of  the COVID-19 vaccine are currently the key to putting an end to the pandemic that has taken so many lives and impacted most others. The annual letter published by Bill and Melinda Gates is Titled The Year Global Health Went Local, and COVID-19 has certainly proven that if a virus exists anywhere in the world, the entire global population is vulnerable. It has also highlighted global inequality in access to health care.

 

I have been advocating for childhood vaccines with the United Nations Foundation Shot@life campaign for nearly ten years, and our message that  “A virus does not need a passport” has never seemed more pertinent. My mother was a polio survivor who passed away before any of my own four children were born. Due to the Polio vaccine, I never had to worry that any of my own children might contract it. I don’t think a mother anywhere in the world should have to worry about losing a child to a disease that a vaccine can easily prevent.   

 

Shot@life is a campaign to educate, connect and empower Americans to advocate for global vaccines. Not only because it is the moral thing to do, but preventing infectious disease overseas, also protects Americans at home.  The goal of Shot@Life is to decrease vaccine-preventable deaths in children around the world so that every child has a chance at a healthy life, no matter where they live.   

While we take for granted in the U.S. that our children will not likely die from measles, pneumonia, or a case of diarrhea, sadly, mothers in the poorest countries around the world do not have that luxury. In low-income countries without the healthcare infrastructure we are used to, mothers will walk all day in the hot sun with a baby on their back and a toddler in hand to reach a vaccine clinic. In many cases, it is because they have already lost a child to a vaccine-preventable disease, or know someone who has.

 

Global health makes up less than one percent of the Federal Budget yet is one of the best returns on investment. For less than five dollars per child, vaccines can prevent future disabilities, wage and productivity loss, disease, and treatment costs. As we have seen first hand with COVID-19, disease outbreaks disrupt nations’ economies leading to instability. Saving the lives of children is the right thing to do. Funding global health infrastructure also improves tracking and surveillance systems, supporting global health security and outbreak response to emerging viruses like COVID-19.

Thirty years ago, polio paralyzed over 1,000 kids a day. Today, thanks to the Polio vaccine, the world is nearly polio-free. Health systems initially put in place for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are perfect examples of that return on investment as they have been used to control Ebola outbreaks in West Africa and more recently mobilized in the effort to support the COVID-19 pandemic response.

 

Meanwhile, as the world is focused on pandemic triage, routine childhood vaccination schedules have fallen behind, putting the progress we’ve made at risk. In 2019, measles deaths surged to over 200,000 children due to declining vaccine rates in many countries. The pandemic has only exacerbated the problem over the past year. The measles-rubella vaccine costs less than two dollars per child to protect them for life. 

 

Sometimes it’s the little things.

The 10th anniversary of the Shot@Life Champion Summit this year was held virtually. Our office visits with Senators and Representatives were held over zoom, they looked a bit different than in the past, but our message was the same.

Vaccines save lives, and every child deserves a shot at life.

Our request in FY22 is to fund child immunization budgets for the CDC and USAID that combat polio and measles and support GAVI and UNICEF. Those investments will save the lives of millions of children and prevent future outbreaks of those diseases and strengthen the eventual delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to even the hardest to reach populations.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to develop more efficient vaccine programs using innovations like barcoding, vaccine registries, digital records, cell phone reminders, and enhanced cold chain and logistic systems. The funding for routine childhood vaccines creates and supports critical distribution infrastructure that will be turned around to deliver COVID-19 vaccines subsequently. The pandemic will only come to an end when the whole world has access to the vaccine. The longer the virus lingers and spreads elsewhere, the more the virus has an opportunity to mutate and set us back to square one. 

 

We are not helpless in this fight to save lives. Let Congress know that you support funding global immunization programs to save the lives of children around the world from vaccine-preventable diseases by signing this petition.  Ultimately this investment will strengthen our own country’s health security system from future emerging viruses.

Check out the Shot@Life website for more information on how to get involved and become an advocate.

 

We can all do our part.  Sometimes it’s the little things that add up to make an impact.