Reaffirming Our Commitment
Each year, Merriam-Webster selects a word of the year. It is not surprising that the 2021 word of the year is vaccine. Over the past two years, many of us have come to appreciate vaccines more than ever as COVID-19 has upended our lives and taken too many, too soon.
The pandemic has served to remind us of the power that vaccines have to save lives and prevent illness, but disruptions in routine healthcare services as a result of COVID-19 has put over 80 million children under the age of one at risk for missing life-saving vaccines. We cannot afford to lose the gains that have been made in immunization coverage, lives depend on it.