Vaccines are one of the greatest public health successes of our time because they don’t cost very much, and they have a huge impact. If you look ahead to 2030, WHO estimates that 50 million lives can be saved by vaccines. This is a small price to pay to save a child’s life. Even the more expensive vaccines are made available to countries for roughly $10, thanks to global efforts by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Many of these vaccines only cost cents some a few dollars. It’s just unacceptable that kids continue to experience these horrific symptoms and long-term impacts when it’s entirely preventable. What’s especially tragic about these diseases is that they can not only cause sickness and death, but they can lead to debilitating lifelong conditions like paralysis or blindness. And there are newer vaccines that protect kids from diseases like rotavirus and pneumococcal, which can cause severe diarrhea and dehydration. Vaccines are some of our best tools to fight diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, polio, and yellow fever. Every year, over 4 million lives – most of them children’s – are saved with vaccines. Simply stated, vaccines save kids’ lives. But what exactly is at stake? What kinds of diseases do these vaccines prevent? We often hear that we can’t afford to let kids skip routine vaccinations. Megan Rabbitt and Dynahlee Padilla-Vasquez talked with Lori Sloate, Senior Director for Global Health at the UN Foundation, to learn more. Now the World Health Organization is rallying the world around “The Big Catch-Up,” a global push to make up for the pandemic losses so every kid gets the vaccines they need. COVID-19 set back vaccination rates to levels not seen in a generation. Vaccinations could determine whether a child lives or dies.
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