Some 67 million children worldwide missed routine vaccination shots during the past three years because of health care disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, raising the risk of measles and polio outbreaks.
New data from UNICEF in its annual State of the World’s Children report on Thursday showed the public perception of the importance of vaccines for children fell during the pandemic in 52 of 55 countries studied.
That perception remained steady only in China, India and Mexico, according to data published by UNICEF and collected by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine's Vaccine Confidence Project from 2015 to Nov. 2019 and since 2021.
In most countries, the U.N. children's agency said, people under 35 years of age and women more generally expressed less confidence about vaccines for children – even though scientists developed life-saving coronavirus vaccines in record time.
“Despite this historic achievement, fear and disinformation about all types of vaccines circulated as widely as the virus itself,” said UNICEF's Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“This data is a worrying warning signal," she said of the first edition of the agency's flagship report focused on routine immunizations. "The next wave of deaths could be of more children with measles, diphtheria or other preventable diseases.”
UNICEF urged countries to identify and reach all children who missed vaccinations and to build more confidence in childhood vaccinations. It also recommended prioritizing funding for immunization services and primary health care, and investing more in resilient health care by hiring female health workers.
