Opinion The Vaccination Crisis: Chipping away at hard-won gains against infectious diseases

Since their introduction in the late 18th century, vaccines have been critical in giving humankind the upper hand in its battle against pathogens. Infectious diseases are the cause of fewer than one in six deaths today. The availability of Covid vaccines less than a year into the pandemic marked a high point in the history of vaccination. However, the toll taken by Covid does not seem to have instilled a sense of urgency to implementing projects against infectious diseases. Immunisation drives have slackened, even in parts of the developed world. In a joint statement, on Wednesday, to mark the beginning of World Immunisation Week, the WHO, UNICEF and the Gavi vaccine alliance warned that “there has been a global uptick in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, meningitis and yellow fever”. In 2024, almost 1,400 meningitis deaths were reported across 24 countries. In the past year, 61 countries have reported measles outbreaks — the US is in the throes of its first outbreak since 2000.

A funding crisis is limiting the capacity of agencies such as the WHO to vaccinate children in poor countries and conflict zones such as Gaza. At the same time, in the US, misinformation appears to have chipped away at hard-won gains. The rate of children who have been vaccinated for measles, polio, whooping cough, and chickenpox has fallen slightly since the pandemic. However, this small decrease seems to be creating pockets of kindergarteners who no longer have herd immunity. Alaska, the worst hit by the measles outbreak, has seen a near 10 per cent drop in vaccination rates in the past two years.

Advertisement

In the US, the pushback against inoculation has gathered pace during Donald Trump’s presidency. Under Robert Kennedy, a known vaccine sceptic whose handling of the measles crisis has received flak — Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official, resigned last month calling out the US health secretary for spreading misinformation — the US health administration has starved the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of finances. The fund crunch has claimed its first casualty. The world’s largest study on the safety of Covid vaccines, stewarded by the New Zealand-based Global Vaccine Data Centre, was terminated a year shy of completion because the cash-strapped CDC can no longer fund it. The setback, barely two months after the US withdrew from the WHO, should lead to reflection. The fight against infectious diseases is too significant to depend on a single donor. It’s time that other countries, corporates and philanthropic groups step up.