By Patrick Swain

At the end of 2020, the UK became the first country in the Western world to approve the use of a COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials. Since Margaret Keenan received the first ever dose on 8 December 2020, over 120 million vaccines have been administered to people up and down the country this year. And with the new Omicron variant beginning to spread in the community, we are reminded once again that vaccination is our best shot at preventing serious disease from COVID-19.

But it’s not just COVID-19 vaccines that are important. Ensuring people receive other vaccinations, such as those for influenza (flu), pneumococcal disease and herpes zoster (shingles), is also paramount.

What we’ve done

During this year’s World Immunization Week (24–30 April), the Immunisation for All Ages (IFAA) initiative, funded by Pfizer and supported by ILC, updated its manifesto in the context of the pandemic. The manifesto calls on national and international health and advocacy organisations and governments to:

• Prioritise immunisation throughout life as a key pillar of expanded prevention strategies and a central component of universal health coverage
• Remove barriers to access for appropriate immunisation throughout life to ensure all people are protected and no one is left behind
• Reduce inequities to allow better access to immunisation throughout life

As highlighted in our Ready to roll out policy briefing, while the past 18 months have certainly put vaccination higher on the political agenda, more needs to be done to ensure it doesn’t slip back down once we finally recover from the pandemic. In the briefing, we argue the Government and healthcare system should continue momentum built in the pandemic into routine vaccination programmes through giving the expanded healthcare workforce, such as school nurses and community pharmacies, a greater role in immunisation and using the data infrastructure built for the pandemic.

Similar suggestions have been made in our Reducing the risk report too, which looks at how routine vaccination can be improved in clinical risk groups. While uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine has been strong in people with underlying health conditions, take-up of other vaccines is still much lower. As such, making sure there is targeted communication for different at-risk groups; closer partnerships between charities, community leaders and public health bodies; and improving access to vaccination is critical to help improve uptake.

Vaccination across the globe

Improving vaccination in countries beyond the UK has become a focus for ILC too. In Europe, we are also making the case for improved immunisation in patients with chronic medical conditions. Working with the Coalition for Life-Course Immunisation, our upcoming Hitting new heights report is calling on the EU to do more to reach the WHO’s 75% flu vaccination target for clinical risk groups – something EU Member States set out to achieve back in 2010. Our virtual report launch on 3 February 2022 will bring together policymakers, charities and health experts to discuss this topic.

Our Moving the needle project is also looking at ways of increasing routine vaccination in older adults aged 65 and over in Japan. Alongside Stripe Partners, we are working to identify, develop and refine two implementation-ready interventions designed to increase uptake in older Japanese adults. So far, we have gathered different ideas and perspectives from policy experts, academics and people on the ground in Japan, and produced an evidence review of what has worked elsewhere and what could be done in Japan to increase routine vaccination.

At the global level, our ongoing Delivering prevention in an ageing world programme, seeks to demonstrate how G20 countries can better prioritise preventative efforts. For instance, increasing prevention spend to at least 6% of their health budgets. Greater investment is only a starting point, however. We also argue that investment needs to be directed towards efforts that aim to democratise access to prevention. Ageist policymaking, siloisation in healthcare, and poor integration between public health and primary care must all be addressed if we want to reduce inequalities in access to preventative healthcare, including routine vaccination.

What happens next

Back in the UK, we are continuing with our latest vaccination project, Generation Vax. This new and exciting programme of work aims to understand whether younger people can influence older adults in deprived communities to get vaccinated through the powers of social media. One of our most ambitious projects to date, we will be testing social media content to see whether engaging younger people on social media can increase the uptake of flu and pneumococcal vaccinations among older people in deprived areas.

All of these projects can be found on our new Adult Immunisation webpage, which has been developed to showcase ILC’s vaccination research, blogs and partnerships. ILC is committed to making the case for immunisation as a vital preventative healthcare measure for enhancing longevity and ensuring healthy ageing throughout the life-course.