2023-12-15 23:34:37
Infographic design for the flu vaccination campaign created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ⓒUS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
As the seasons change, the coughing noises never stop coming from all over the place. The number of people who have been infected with COVID-19 once more and those who have type A flu is increasing.
The human and material resources used up each year due to the epidemic of respiratory viruses also causes public health and economic problems. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention holds a flu vaccine campaign every year and provides infographics with large numbers. For example, through flu vaccination in the United States in 2021-2022, 1.8 million residents in Virginia and Rhode Island were able to avoid getting the flu. One million residents of Austin, Texas, did not have to see a doctor for the flu, each hospital was able to reduce hospitalizations by 60 per day, and the number of deaths from the flu was reduced by the number of people riding on two Boeing 747 airplanes.
Through COVID-19, humanity has already learned how individual vaccination protects families, communities, and society. If the entire world had not rushed into the vaccination campaign with all its might, we might have had to make more sacrifices and endure a longer period of suffering.
Conversely, due to COVID-19, the number of children under 24 months of age who did not receive required vaccinations has increased. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 40 million children will miss out on measles vaccination in 2021, and measles will cause regarding 9 million infections and 130,000 deaths worldwide. Humanity was overlooking the fact that measles, a disease that was fully preventable with vaccines, was emerging from under the shadow of COVID-19. Even that was originally the role of a vaccine. The measles vaccination rate alone has such a huge impact, but what would happen if dozens of vaccines were not properly administered to infants and young children in a local community, in a country, or around the world is an unimaginable nightmare.
Whenever measles, which is thought to have almost disappeared from the United States, is prevalent, there are always people who come forward to emphasize the importance of the measles vaccine. Even when vaccine opponents were on the rise in the United States thanks to malicious papers regarding the measles vaccine, and even when this led to a local measles epidemic in the community, he emphasized the importance of the measles vaccine through the press and media. This is Rosalynn Carter, the wife of the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.
Rosalynn Carter, the wife of the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, and Betty Bumpers, the wife of the Arkansas Governor, have worked to expand measles vaccination for American children since the 1970s.
After becoming first lady in 1977, she worked with Betty Bumpers, the wife of the Arkansas governor, to enact the ‘mandatory vaccination bill before school admission.’ Through this, more than 95% of American children received vaccinations before starting school, and child disease rates plummeted. In 1989, when more than 55,000 people were infected with measles, more than 11,000 were hospitalized, and 120 people died from measles, Carter and Bumpers launched ‘Every Child by Two’ (ECBT, now VFC). He founded an organization called Vaccines for Children and visited all 50 states to build a vaccination coalition comprised of policymakers, service organizations, and civic groups to vaccinate children under 2 years of age.
Their efforts led to bipartisan policies and became the foundation for making the vaccination system a national priority. In addition, considering the circumstances of low-income people who have limited access to vaccines due to lack of health insurance, efforts are being made to ensure that more people receive free vaccinations through the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program, which supports approximately 7 million low-income women and children every year. Didn’t spare anything. Some estimates say that ECBT’s support may have saved the lives of more than 1 million children vaccinated in the United States since 1994.
Carter, who contributed greatly to public health, including not only vaccination campaigns but also mental health and nursing care policies, passed away on November 19 at the age of 96. In the face of the risk of measles that has returned along with the lower infant vaccination rate due to COVID-19, I think once more regarding Carter’s mission as he traveled to all 50 states calling for the vaccine not to be used politically.
Dr. Seongsil Moon in Microbiology ⓒProvided by Dr. Seongsil Moon
1702716792
#memory #Rosalynn #Carter #public #health #hero #combated #vaccine #mistrust
