While daily vaccines have prevented the deaths of around 154 million children worldwide over the past 50 years, new research shows, efforts have slowed recently, allowing for the growth of diseases that can be prevented with several vaccines. This backslide can lead to more unnecessary illnesses and deaths without increasing efforts to vaccinate children and combat misinformation.
The report was published in the medical journal The Lancet on Tuesday, saying that the World Health Organization’s expansion program on vaccinations has vaccinated more than 4 billion children over the past 50 years. This doubling of the vaccine’s global coverage has hampered countless cases of tuberculosis, measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.
There was a coordinated effort to vaccinate people between 1980 and 2023, and researchers found that the number of children with “zero dorsals” fell by 75%.
“Childhood vaccinations have proven to be one of the most successful and cost-effective public health strategies known for both saved lives and return on investment,” the researchers wrote. In some cases, the return rate is up to 44 times the cost of vaccination.
But despite this success, the study found that vaccination efforts have slowed down, and in some cases even progress has been reversed.
Between 2010 and 2019, at least one vaccination fell in 21 of the 36 high-income countries measured in the study.
Gabi, Vaccine Alliance, International Efforts It says it has vaccinated children in developing countries and helped fund new research, and between 2010 and 2019, essential childhood vaccinations have declined in more than 100 countries around the world, leading to the outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases such as polio, diphtheria and yellow fever. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also supported funding the research.
The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly delayed vaccination efforts as more people stayed home and avoided medical visits. Number of zero-dose children peaked at 18.6 million worldwide in 2021 during the pandemic Before it fell to 15.7 million in 2023.
It’s not the only phenomenon to condemn the decline in vaccination rates. Violent conflict, political volatility, climate-related crises, increased population movement and mobility, and misinformation about vaccines have also resulted in obstacles to vaccination.
Misinformation about vaccines is so widespread that it has become popular among those who identified it in 2019 as one of the major threats to global health.
Vaccination efforts in the US and elsewhere could be slower with new leadership. President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget has reimbursed several important vaccine campaigns overseas.
The proposal closes the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global Health Unit, which will end a large program that offsets children with polio, measles and other illnesses. The proposal also brings Gavi’s US funding to zero.
Trump also chose vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the HHS. Kennedy said in May that Covid-19 shots are no longer recommended for healthy children or pregnant women, despite pledging at his confirmation hearing that he would not violate Americans’ access to vaccines.. Amidst the ongoing multi-stage measles outbreak, he focused on unconventional treatments instead of vaccinations, and this month Kennedy fired members of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, replacing them with new members.
In a video shown at Gabi’s fundraising event in Brussels on Wednesday, Reuters said the US government would not send funds to Gavi until it considers “the best science” in what he characterizes, without providing evidence as a safety concern about vaccines. In response to Kennedy’s comments, Gabi said, “The greatest concern is the health and safety of children.”
In the US, research shows that most parents still think about childhood vaccines being important and keeping their children up to date, but kindergarten vaccine exemption rates have been reported so far between 2023 and 24. Fees in some jurisdictions exceeded 5%, CDC research found.
The United States is approaching the record of most measles cases reported in a year since the disease was declared excluded in 2000. There was also a nearly ten-fold increase in measles infections recorded in the EU and European Union economic zones alone in 2024, the study said.
“Despite monumental efforts over the past 50 years, progress has not been universal. Many children are inadequate and have not been vaccinated.”
The majority of children who have never received the vaccine are outside the United States, the study says. They are concentrated in eight countries: Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Indonesia and Brazil.
Because the reasons for vaccination shortages vary from country to country, researchers argue that public health experts will need to create targeted campaigns to vaccinate more people, especially if they want to achieve the targeted target of 90% vaccine coverage by 2030.
“Sustainable investment and targeting strategies are essential to maintain progress, widening the vaccination gap and ensuring equitable access to life-saving vaccines,” wrote Hai Fan, a professor specializing in disease vaccine economics and epidemiology at Peking University’s Health Science Center and The Peking University. In an editorial with research in the Lancet, the Chinese Center for Vaccine Economics for Disease Control and Prevention.
