To the editor:
Surely, the coronavirus is opening people’s eyes to the dangers of communicable diseases and how easily they can be spread throughout the world.
Many diseases are preventable by vaccines; but, until such diseases are eradicated from the world, everyone remains at risk because too many are not being vaccinated.
I and many others are asking Canada to pledge $215 million over four years to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
It is well-established that vaccines work against many of the world’s worst diseases, of which polio is most definitely one.
Polio is a disease which is possible for us to eradicate from the world.
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is working very hard on this eradication, but it desperately needs our help if it is to succeed.
Millions of children in the world are not being vaccinated against polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases.
Such children are often those who live in extreme poverty and are hard to reach because they live in remote or conflict-affected areas of the world.
Immunization is one of the most cost-effective interventions in public health and development.
Winning the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases requires all of the world’s children to be vaccinated.
Diseases know no borders.
Reaching all of the world’s children with life-saving vaccines is imperative, especially in low-income, fragile and conflict-affected countries where inaccessibility and unaffordability are problems.
Please, Canada, pledge $215 million over four years to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Let us please eradicate polio from the world.
Marnie Shaw
Calgary