Opinion: Investing in health workers can help close the vaccination gap — and improve global health
The sharp decline in routine childhood immunization rates the World Health Organization recently reported is a stark warning that today’s pandemic mistakes and rise of vaccine misinformation could harm generations to come.
The enormity of the immunization gap in 2021 is difficult to comprehend: 25 million kids under-vaccinated, with 18 million missing immunizations completely — the highest numbers since 2009. To put that into perspective, imagine that every baby born last year in North America and the European Union combined did not receive the basic vaccinations that would protect them against many of the deadliest childhood diseases on the planet.
