Global Efforts to Boost Routine Childhood Vaccinations Amid Decline
The World Health Organization, along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other organizations, is launching an initiative to reverse the decline in routine childhood vaccinations caused by the pandemic. The effort will focus on boosting rates in 20 countries that account for 75% of the children who missed vaccinations in 2021. According to the WHO, 25 million children under the age of 1 year did not receive basic vaccines in 2021, and global immunization coverage for children dropped to 81% that year from 86% in 2019.