Question

How can we measure acceptability of Covid-19 vaccination program in relation to Principles of Health Services?

Answer 1

Ans.

It is a considerable challenge to reach a critical mass of people around the world to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines reach all recommended communities and countries. It will be important to establish and manage reliable supply chains for innovative approaches to effective vaccination. Decisions regarding distribution of the vaccine should follow public health principles to control the spread of disease globally irrespective of the ability to purchase the vaccine.

• The Public's Role in COVID-19 Vaccination: Planning Recommendations Informed by Design Thinking and the Social, Behavioral, and Communication Sciences
• Best Practices on Vaccine Storage and Handling – and other resources have been added to CDC’s Vaccine Storage and Handling Toolkit to assist vaccination providers with proper storage and handling of COVID-19 vaccines, and to help meet the requirements of the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Provider Agreement. Be sure to sign up for email updates.
• COVID-19 Vaccine Training Module for HCP - a new CDC web-on-demand module, COVID-19 Vaccine Training Module for Healthcare Providers, is now available for providers who will be administering COVID-19 vaccines, and includes information about emergency use authorizations, vaccine safety, vaccine storage, handling, administration, and reporting.
• The COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Operational Guidance for Jurisdictions Playbook - serves as an interim playbook for state, territorial, tribal, and local public health programs and their partners on how to plan and operationalize a vaccination response to COVID-19 within their jurisdictions.

When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes or approves a COVID-19 vaccine, ACIP will quickly hold a public meeting to review all available data about that vaccine (sign up to receive email updates whenever ACIP’s Meeting Information is updated). From these data, ACIP will then vote on whether to recommend the vaccine and, if so, who should receive it.

• On December 1, 2020, ACIP made recommendations on who should be offered COVID-19 vaccination in the initial phase of the U.S. COVID-19 vaccination program while there is limited vaccine supply.
• On December 11, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an Emergency Use Authorization for use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccineexternal icon in persons aged 16 years and older for the prevention of COVID-19.
• On December 13, 2020, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) issued recommendations for the use of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19.

ACIP will meet again after FDA authorizes or approves other COVID-19 vaccines and will make recommendations for the use of individual vaccines at that time.

Immunization is a global health and development success story, saving millions of lives every year. Vaccines reduce risks of getting a disease by working with your body’s natural defences to build protection. When you get a vaccine, your immune system responds.

We now have vaccines to prevent more than 20 life-threatening diseases, helping people of all ages live longer, healthier lives. Immunization currently prevents 2-3 million deaths every year from diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, influenza and measles.

Immunization is a key component of primary health care and an indisputable human right. It’s also one of the best health investments money can buy. Vaccines are also critical to the prevention and control of infectious-disease outbreaks. They underpin global health security and will be a vital tool in the battle against antimicrobial resistance.

Yet despite tremendous progress, far too many people around the world – including nearly 20 million infants each year – have insufficient access to vaccines. In some countries, progress has stalled or even reversed, and there is a real risk that complacency will undermine past achievements.

Global vaccination coverage – the proportion of the world’s children who receive recommended vaccines – has remained the same over the past few years.