Global Vaccination Summit

About the Summit

The European Commission organised, in cooperation with the World Health Organisation, a Global Vaccination Summit on 12 September 2019, in Brussels.

The event took place under the joint auspices of the European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The overall objective was to give high level visibility and political endorsement to the topic of vaccination, which is the most successful public health measure saving millions of lives every year. It demonstrated EU leadership for global commitment to vaccination, boost political commitment towards eliminating vaccine preventable diseases and engage political leaders and leaders from scientific, medical, industry, philanthropic and civil society in global action against the spread of vaccine misinformation.

• Summit report
• Agenda of the Summit
• Ten actions towards vaccination for all (available in 23 EU linguistic versions)

The event was structured around the following three round tables:

• Roundtable 1: In Vaccines we trust
  Stepping up action to increase vaccine confidence
  • Background Paper
  • Panel members' biographies
• Roundtable 2: The Magic of Science
  Boosting vaccine Research, Development, and Innovation
  • Background Paper
  • Panel members' biographies

• Roundtable 3: Vaccines Protecting Everyone, Everywhere
  Galvanizing a global response to assure health, security and prosperity through immunization
  • Background Paper
  • Panel members' biographies

Participants

The Summit brought together around 400 participants from around the globe including political leaders, high-level representatives from the UN and other international organisations, health ministries, leading academics, scientists and health professionals, the private sector and NGOs.

Participation was upon invitation only.

Video recording

Testimonials:

• Laura Brennan
  HPV Advocate
• Beatrice Vio
  Italian wheelchair fencing champion and vaccine advocate

Summit:

• Global Vaccination Summit Highlights Video

Rationale

Vaccination is the most successful public health measure of modern times. Thanks to widespread vaccination, smallpox has been eradicated, Europe made polio-free, and elimination of other diseases on the horizon. Vaccination prevents an estimated 2.5 million deaths worldwide each year and reduces disease-specific treatment costs. Despite its brilliant track record, several EU and neighbouring countries are currently facing unprecedented outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases due to insufficient vaccination coverage rates. Unequal access to vaccines and in some places waning of public confidence in vaccination are a cause for concern and a major challenge for public health experts. The WHO declared vaccine misinformation as one of the main health threats for 2019.

Social media

The Summit hashtags are: #VaccinationSummit19 #VaccinesWork

More information

Media:

• Press release - Vaccination: European Commission and World Health Organization join forces to promote the benefits of vaccines
• Ten actions towards vaccination for all
• Questions & Answers: Global Vaccination Summit
• Factsheet - Vaccination: an issue for Europe & the world
• Photo gallery:

Contact:

• EC-VACCINATION-SUMMIT-MEDIAec [dot] europa [dot] eu (For media enquiries)
• EC-VACCINATION-SUMMITec [dot] europa [dot] eu (Contact the Summit team)