Status: 04/20/2023 08:33 a.m
According to the children’s charity UNICEF, between 2019 and 2021, around 67 million children missed routine vaccinations against serious diseases. This is due to growing skepticism about vaccination and omissions during the pandemic.
In the course of the corona pandemic, the number of vaccinations against other serious diseases has fallen massively. The UNICEF children’s charity complains about this in its new annual report and warns of a widening global vaccination gap. According to the report, between 2019 and 2021 alone, around 67 million children missed routine vaccinations, such as those against measles and polio, in whole or in part.
“More than a decade of hard-won advances in routine childhood immunizations have been undermined,” the report said. Getting back on track with child vaccinations will be a “difficult” task.
Big rise in measles and polio
According to the report, vaccination coverage for children fell in 112 countries and fell globally by five percentage points to 81 percent – the lowest level since 2008. Africa and southern Asia were particularly hard hit by this vaccination undersupply in children. “Vaccination has saved millions of lives and protected people from deadly disease outbreaks,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Routine vaccinations and strong health systems are our best chance to prevent future pandemics, unnecessary deaths and suffering.”
The proportion of children vaccinated against measles worldwide fell from 86 percent to 81 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to the report. In 2022 there were more than twice as many measles cases as in the previous year. “Vaccinations have played a really important role in helping more children live healthy, long lives,” the report’s senior editor, Brian Keeley, told AFP. Any decline in the vaccination rate is worrying. The number of children paralyzed by polio increased by 16 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year.
Increasing skepticism during the pandemic
UNICEF sees one reason for this development in a growing skepticism about vaccinations. Awareness of the importance of vaccination has fallen during the coronavirus pandemic in 52 out of 55 countries surveyed, the report said. In most countries, people under the age of 35 and women, in particular, said their confidence in childhood vaccinations had tended to decline since the pandemic began.
Despite the decline in confidence, UNICEF says support for immunizations remains relatively strong in general. In almost half of the countries surveyed, more than 80 percent of those surveyed said that vaccinating children is important. However, a combination of factors could mean that reluctance to vaccinate is on the rise, UNICEF warned.
These included uncertainty about how to deal with the corona pandemic, widespread disinformation, dwindling trust in specialist knowledge and political polarization. “At the height of the pandemic, scientists rapidly developed vaccines that saved countless lives. Yet despite this historic achievement, fears and disinformation about vaccines were as widespread as the virus itself,” Russell said. The new data is a worrying signal. “We must not allow confidence in routine childhood vaccinations to fall victim to the pandemic,” Russell said.
Biggest drop in routine vaccinations in 30 years
UNICEF was particularly alarmed that falling confidence was accompanied by the largest drop in routine childhood vaccinations in 30 years. The corona pandemic has interrupted routine vaccinations in many countries. Among other things, this was due to the fact that health systems were overburdened and financial resources were diverted to vaccinate people against Covid-19. Lockdowns and disabilities in healthcare were also reasons for this.
The corona pandemic has also exacerbated inequalities. For too many children, especially in the most marginalized groups, vaccinations are still not available, accessible or affordable. Even before the pandemic, the pace of immunizations had stalled for nearly a decade, the report said.
UNICEF demands that governments around the world urgently need to take action in view of these developments. Otherwise, “the next wave of deaths could affect a growing number of children who contract measles, diphtheria or other preventable diseases.”