Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about the issue of securing genuinely equitable access to vaccines for children around the world.

Vaccines are a vital weapon against many diseases and the UK has been a longstanding advocate and investor in global vaccination programmes. Britain has supported immunisation of an estimated 74.3 million children, saving 1.4 million lives between 2015 and 2018.

I believe that global vaccine equity is a moral and economic imperative. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the failure to protect public health in one community is failure to protect public health everywhere. Yet millions of children still miss out on routine vaccinations because of factors such as the pandemic, armed conflicts and other crises around the world. Those missed inoculations include essential protection against diseases like measles and polio. For this reason, I believe that we should help protect children’s futures and support immunisation of children around the world.

In my view, the UK, as one of the main contributors to the Vaccine Alliance GAVI, is in a powerful position to promote vaccine equity and tackle under-immunisation. Please rest assured that I will continue to press the Government tocontinue to support children’s immunisation programmes.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP