Covid-19 has disrupted essential health services: separating patients from health workers; diverting staff, attention and funding; and breaking medical supply chains. The rippling health effects will amplify the already devastating impact of the coronavirus alone. Immunization has been one of the earliest and hardest hit areas, with an estimated 80 million infants at risk across at least 68 countries. Can essential immunization programmes adapt to work around Covid-19? What can immunization efforts and infrastructures built over time teach us about how to make health services more flexible and resilient to prevent and respond to future emergencies? And could this disruption offer an opportunity to re-think how global health actors have engaged with national immunization programmes, and with each other? What might it mean, concretely, to #BuildBackBetter?
Speakers
- Robin Nandy, Principal Adviser & Chief of Immunization, UNICEF
- Zubair Wadood, Senior Polio Epidemiologist & Technical Officer, WHO
- Barbara Saitta, Vaccine Medical Advisor & Vaccination Operational Advocacy Focal Point, Médecins Sans Frontières
- Moderated by Suerie Moon, Co-Director, Global Health Centre
