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Graphic Truth: Shots across the border
Cases of measles, a highly contagious disease that can linger in the air for up to two hours, are rising in Canada. There have been small outbreaks across Southwestern Ontario since the beginning of the year, prompting public health officials to urge Canadians to ensure they have had both their first and second vaccinations.
Projections from a team at Simon Fraser University show that vaccine coverage below 85% can lead to dozens of cases within small communities — or even hundreds if immunization rates are lower than that. Rates of getting the second vaccine have dropped from 87% in 2017 to 79% in 2023 across Canada. Getting the second dose increases a person’s immunity from 85% to nearly 100%, according to health officials.
Meanwhile, south of the border, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prolific vaccine skeptic, is set to be confirmed this week. He walked back some of his past statements on vaccines during his confirmation process, calling himself cautious rather than skeptical, but has continued to surround himself with influential figures in the anti-vaccine movement.
But neither his rise in influence nor the increase in anti-vaxxer misinformation has affected measles vaccination rates – at least not yet. Vaccination rates are much higher in the US than in Canada, with 95% of the population having received their second vaccine from 2019 onward.
“Health is a human right”: How the world can make up progress lost to COVID
The state of public health in the developing world bears some deep scars from the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past three years, immunization rates have dropped to levels not seen in three decades. 2 billion people are facing "catastrophic or impoverishing" health spending worldwide according to the World Health Organization. And governments in the Global South are taking on more and more debt at the expense of investment in health and social services.
Kate Dodson, the Vice President of Global Health Strategy at the UN Foundation, is on the frontlines of the fight to give the most vulnerable people in the world access to proper healthcare. She works to connect experts and innovators with the UN, and find resources to support their work.
She’s calling on governments to invest in basic elements of public health, including primary care access, and properly remunerating healthcare workers — the majority of whom are women, worldwide. And more fundamentally, she wants leaders to treat health as a human right that all deserve to enjoy.
More from Global Stage: https://www.gzeromedia.com/global-stage/
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How development of the COVID-19 vaccine shattered records
They said it couldn't be done: a vaccine developed in record time. In 1967, Merck had a license for a mumps vaccine, less than five years for work that normally takes decades. But that record is now being shattered as the COVID-19 vaccine reaches the market in less than a year. It's an unprecedented scientific development in a whirlwind year of crisis.
Watch the GZERO World episode: A Shot in the Arm: Moderna's Co-Founder on the COVID-19 Vaccine