Vcages do not save lives. Do vaccinations.
This is an important 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 played an important role in reducing preventable deaths in children in the United States and around the world – but only as a result of public health campaigns which is confidence in vaccination and vaccines that are easily accessible to people from every life existence.
Now comes Covid-19, a highly contagious disease caused by a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV2, that humans have never encountered before. In an incredible feat of science and speed, we now have vaccinations against this virus that prove to be very effective.
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Experts believe that 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 do not want to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 at all. This will not bring us to the required level of immunity. We run the unnecessary risk of losing more lives to Covid-19 unless we launch massive campaigns to overcome vaccine hesitation and ensure that vaccines are accessible to all.
That’s why we need National Vaccination Day – a one-off federal holiday in 2021 to promote vaccine education, honor the health workers and scientists who struggled to help so many people survive the pandemic and remember those who died. . We are among a growing group of public health scientists and experts requesting such a holiday, including Dr. Richard Carmona, the 17th Surgeon-General of the United States, and Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science & Security.
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The holiday itself would be a large-scale, innovative public health intervention that draws the country’s attention to vaccination. The announcement of the holiday date, which is planned as soon as it is safe – probably in the summer, but possibly later, depending on the progress of the vaccination – would serve as the light at the end of the tunnel, which at the same time would create a national benchmark to complete widespread vaccination campaigns and a day of opportunities for scientific education, social recovery and remembrance. This will encourage Americans to be vaccinated in advance so that they can attend public events. It conducts research that shows that effective public health campaigns make the behaviors promoted ‘easy, fun and popular’.
To be sure, the national vaccination should not be a premature celebration of a victory over Covid-19. Even if the vaccination campaigns go well in the coming months, most of the developing countries will not have access to vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 by 2021. And we need to better prepare ourselves for the next pandemic, caused by flu or other new viruses that make the leap to humans from birds or bats or other animals. National Vaccination Day will therefore also draw US attention to the worldwide distribution of vaccines, as well as initiatives to prevent the next pandemic – including the development of more effective flu vaccines.
On National Vaccine Day, innovative techniques for health communication would be used so that communities, in partnership with health institutions, could combat various forms of vaccine reluctance. New Orleans, for example, already has “Sleeves Up, NOLA!” Launched, a campaign that uses the promise of social gatherings to encourage vaccination.
In the run-up to the holiday, a diverse group of scientists and community leaders – artists, coaches and athletes, faith leaders and others – would emphasize the importance of the Covid-19 vaccine to all Americans. This campaign can help restore trust in health care institutions, and it shows how public health can be community-oriented, proactive, engaging and joyful. The promise of National Vaccination Day – a day of remembrance and social recovery after months and months of social distance – would encourage the country to be vaccinated in anticipation.
The holiday itself will include phone calls, radio programs and internet and social media events to educate the public about vaccines and public health. A series of concerts and festivals would bring together communities and renew industries that suffered financially during the pandemic. National Vaccination Day would also be an opportunity to express our sincere thanks to health workers and scientists who have worked tirelessly over the past year to protect us from the virus, often at great personal risk. More than 1,700 health workers have died to protect us from this virus, and National Vaccination Day may include vigilance for those we have lost.
The US cannot fully celebrate as long as people around the world die from this disease that can be prevented by vaccines. However, we can take stock, appreciate the progress of our country, commemorate those we have lost and strive to create a better world with wider vaccination. National Vaccination Day can also be used to raise funds for world vaccination and appeal to the better angels of our nature.
A one-time federal holiday to recognize and promote vaccination will help spread the message that safe and effective vaccines save lives. It is an action in the tradition of global vaccination campaigns that has enabled us to eradicate some of history’s most insidious infectious diseases.
President Biden can institute National Vaccine Day on executive orders – and we and our colleagues urge him to do so.
Stanley Plotkin is a vaccinologist, physician, and emeritus professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. Norman Baylor is the president and CEO of Biologics Consulting, and former director of the Food and Drug Administration’s office for vaccine research and investigation. Keona Wynne is a doctoral student at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. The authors serve on a steering committee for National Vaccination Day with 1Day Sooner, a nonprofit vaccine.