Friday, Nov. 19, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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As a bartender on the Strip, I interact with people from all over the world every day. If this pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that diseases do not care about borders, who you are or where you live. An outbreak anywhere is a threat everywhere, and we all have a stake in keeping our children and communities safe. That’s why the fact that 1.5 million children still die each year of vaccine-preventable disease is unacceptable.
The pandemic has jeopardized decades of progress in global child immunization, making it more necessary than ever to support programs like UNICEF, USAID, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. These programs strengthen child immunization but they also improve global disease-detection systems that enable nations to respond to a range of diseases. Stopping diseases at their source is the most cost-effective approach, saves the most lives, and makes the world more resilient to new viruses that could cause the next pandemic.
Recently, the Senate released its proposed funding bills, including an increase for USAID and CDC global polio activities. Please contact Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen to let them know you support funding global vaccine programs at the highest levels in this next step of the budget process. Expanding vaccine access is not only beneficial to our global stability, but it’s also the right thing to do.
