On September 21st, stakeholders will come together at the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the importance of aligning investments on primary health care as a key pathway for achieving universal health coverage (UHC) (1). This event fulfills the agreement to convene a high-level meeting in 2023 included as part of the Political Declaration of the High-Level Plenary Meeting on Universal Health Coverage resolution adopted by the General Assembly in 2019 (A/RES/74/2) (2).Latest reports from UHC 2030 show that the positive trajectory from 2019 to 2021 in country commitments to universal health stagnated starting in 2022, and there was systematic underinvestment in reducing financial barriers to health services across many countries (3). UHC 2030 also found continued country reliance on disease-specific programming and wide variations in progress across countries in increasing the service coverage index (Sustainable Development Target 3.8, indicator 3.8.1) (3). A critical questi
2021 Conference Series: Renewing the U.S. Immunization Agenda
Friday, January 29, 2021 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
As the world passes one year of the coronavirus pandemic, multiple vaccine candidates have completed phase III trials, been approved, and are being prepared for global delivery. But amid what promises to be an unprecedented global introduction effort, countries are still working to restore routine immunization services and campaigns that had been disrupted or suspended earlier in the pandemic, leaving many children at risk of other outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Despite evidence of the value of routine immunization services, health professionals continue to grapple with the diversion of resources to the Covid-19 response, rising costs, the slowdown of supply chains, and community fear and mistrust. To what extent has the pandemic affected country experiences with routine vaccination? And what are the prospects for revitalizing progress on routine immunization coverag