Vaccines Save Lives

As a leader, I know the value of having diverse voices within an organization. When people with different backgrounds, experiences and opinions contribute, better decisions are made.

This seems to be a kind of universal truth. In nature, for instance, "monoculture" — the dominance of a single plant species — is a risk to the ecosystem. Higher rates of disease, more pests and degraded soil are often the outcomes. Nature becomes less resilient.

The same can be said for organizations. That's why, even in the midst of the current pushback on formal DEl programs, we continue to seek and encourage people with diverse thinking and points of view to join us to make our organization —UNICEF USA — stronger and more resilient.

But where to draw the line? When is an issue of such importance to an organization that a certain point of view is, really, expected? Legal and ethical standards are one such line, of course. Behaviors regarding how we treat one another, our partners and stakeholders may be another. But what else? What other points of view are expected at your company, nonprofit or other institution?

Here is one at UNICEF USA: the belief in the value of vaccines.

Vaccines have proven to be one of the most powerful public health tools ever conceived.

They have dramatically reduced deaths, extended life expectancies, reduced illness and improved the quality of life greatly in the U.S. and across the world. Over the last 50 years, it is estimated that essential vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives. That's six lives a minute, every day, for five decades. Vaccination accounts for 40 percent of the improvement in infant survival in that same time frame, and more children now live to see their first birthday and beyond than at any other time in human history. The measles vaccine alone accounts for 60 percent of those lives saved.

And UNICEF plays a key role as the world's largest procurer and distributor of vaccines. Nearly half the world's children under the age of 5 count on UNICEF and its partners to deliver the vaccines that protect them from disease and even death. In over 100 countries, our UNICEF colleagues work with governments, businesses, non-governmental organizations and other United Nations agencies to engage communities, procure and distribute vaccines, keep supplies safe and effective and facilitate affordable access for even the hardest-to-reach families. UNICEF also invests in community health systems to improve supply chains, data systems and disease surveillance — helping more children receive the protection they need.

In our view, there should be no debate about the value of vaccines. If you join our team, you join a team that believes in the power of vaccines.

I write this during World Immunization Week. This year's theme is "Immunization for All Is Humanly Possible." That goal — immunization for all — feels under threat for the first time in a long time. For instance, government foreign aid cuts have hit Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the world's largest funder of vaccines for children and families in low-income countries. The U.S. Government reportedly intends to strip Gavi of its $1.3 billion annual contribution. The elimination of that funding would leave millions without the vaccines they need.

At the same time, we are seeing a serious measles outbreak here in the U.S. and in other countries among unvaccinated people. Measles had been thought to be under control. In 1980, there were over 3.8 million cases of measles. By the end of the decade, that number was more than halved and has steadily decreased since, showing a huge success in bringing down these numbers. But lately, we are seeing a resurgence because too many people are unvaccinated.

We are at a watershed moment in the history of global health. Just yesterday, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and Gavi together called for urgent and sustained political attention and investment to strengthen immunization programs and protect the significant progress achieved in reducing child mortality over the past 50 years. Hard-won gains in stamping out diseases that are preventable through vaccination are in jeopardy. Decades of collaborative efforts between governments, aid agencies, scientists, health care workers and parents got us to where we are today — a world where vaccines have helped us to eradicate smallpox, nearly eradicated polio and dramatically reduced other preventable diseases.

Amid anti-vaccine rhetoric and misinformation that disputes these facts and distracts from the lifesaving power of vaccines, the debate has long since been settled here at UNICEF USA. Vaccines save lives.

Right now, the lives of the most vulnerable children hang in the balance as conflicts and crises jeopardize the care and protection that they deserve. Dependable, uninterrupted and effective foreign aid is critical to the well-being of millions of children. Please write your members of Congress and urge them to support ongoing U.S. investments in foreign assistance.