United States Needs National Vaccine Day

Vaccines do not save lives. Vaccinations do.

This is a critical lesson we learned from working at the forefront of vaccine development and health communication. One of Us (SP) helped develop rubella, rabies and rotavirus vaccines, which have been instrumental in reducing preventable child deaths in the United States and globally – but only thanks to public health campaigns that have built confidence in immunization and made vaccines easily accessible to people from all walks of life.

Now comes Covid-19, a highly infectious disease caused by a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV2, which humans have never encountered before. In an incredible feat of science and speed, we now have vaccines against this virus which are proving to be very effective.

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Experts say 70% to 90% of Americans need to be vaccinated to end the pandemic. Yet 44% of Americans plan to wait to receive a vaccine, and 15% said they did not want to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 at all. It will not get us to the level of immunity we need. We risk losing more lives unnecessarily to Covid-19 unless we launch massive campaigns to overcome vaccine reluctance and ensure that vaccines are accessible to all.

That’s why we need National Vaccine Day – a unique federal holiday in 2021 to promote vaccine education, honor healthcare workers and scientists who have worked hard to help so many survive. pandemic and remember those who died. We are part of a growing group of scientists and public health experts calling for such vacations, including Dr Richard Carmona, 17th U.S. Surgeon General, and Angela Rasmussen, virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science & Security.

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The holiday itself would be an innovative large-scale public health intervention that focuses the country’s attention on immunization. The announcement of the date of the party, scheduled as soon as it is safe – likely in the summer, but potentially later depending on the progress of vaccine deployments – would serve as a light at the end of the tunnel, simultaneously creating a national landmark . to carry out widespread vaccination campaigns and an opportunity day for science education, social restoration and memory. This will encourage Americans to get vaccinated in advance so they can attend public events. This puts into practice research showing that effective public health campaigns make the behaviors promoted “easy, fun and popular”.

To be sure, National Vaccine Day shouldn’t be a premature celebration of a victory over Covid-19. Even if vaccination campaigns go well in the coming months, most developing countries will not have access to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in 2021. And we must better prepare for the next pandemic, which could be caused by the flu or other new viruses that jump to humans from birds or bats or other animals. Thus, National Vaccine Day would also draw the attention of Americans to the global distribution of vaccines as well as initiatives to prevent the next pandemic – including the development of more effective influenza vaccines.

National Vaccine Day would employ innovative health communication techniques, enabling communities, in partnership with health facilities, to tackle various forms of vaccine reluctance. New Orleans, for example, has already launched “Sleeves Up, NOLA!”, A campaign that uses the promise of social gatherings to encourage vaccination.

In the lead-up to the holidays, a diverse group of scientists and community leaders – artists, coaches and athletes, religious leaders and others – would emphasize the importance of the Covid-19 vaccination for all Americans. This campaign would help restore confidence in healthcare facilities, showing how public health can be community-centered, proactive, engaging and joyful. The promise of National Vaccine Day – a day of commemoration and social restoration after months and months of social distancing – would encourage the country to get vaccinated early.

The party itself would involve telethons, radio shows, and internet and social media events to educate the public about vaccines and public health. A series of concerts and festivities would bring communities together and rejuvenate industries that suffered financially during the pandemic. National Vaccine Day would also be an opportunity to honor and express our deepest gratitude to the healthcare workers and scientists who have worked tirelessly over the past year to protect us from the virus, often at risk. important personnel. More than 1,700 healthcare workers have died protecting us from this virus, and National Vaccine Day could involve a vigil for those we have lost.

The United States cannot fully celebrate as long as people around the world die from this vaccine-preventable disease. However, we can take stock, appreciate our country’s progress, commemorate those we have lost, and strive to create a better world with broader immunization in the future. National Vaccine Day can also be used to raise funds for global immunization and appeal to the best angels of our nature.

A single federal holiday to recognize and promote immunization would help spread the message that safe and effective vaccines save lives. It would be an action in the tradition of the global vaccination campaigns that have enabled us to eliminate some of the most insidious infectious diseases in history.

President Biden could enact National Vaccine Day by executive order – and our colleagues and we urge him to do so.

Stanley Plotkin is a vaccinologist, physician, and professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. Norman Baylor is President and CEO of Biologics Consulting, and former Director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Vaccine Research and Review. Keona Wynne is a PhD candidate at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. The authors are part of a National Vaccine Day steering committee with 1Day Sooner, a nonprofit vaccine organization.