About immunisation

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the critical role that vaccination plays in stopping the spread of disease and protecting global health security.

A proven strategy for addressing infectious disease threats both old and new, vaccination has been shown to improve health and living standards as well as economic performance.

Even before COVID-19, vaccination was saving more than five lives every minute – preventing up to three million deaths a year.

However, since the outbreak of pandemic, routine vaccination has been delayed or suspended in at least 68 countries, and this is estimated to have negatively impacted approximately 80 million children under the age of one.

These numbers have the potential to increase as the pandemic continues to surge and as the impact of this disease across the life-course receives fuller assessment.

We need urgent action today to determine the course of global vaccination in the coming years, to heighten our ability to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal 3, to protect against disruptions in the face of future threats, and to ultimately ensure global health security.