Building Resilience: Primary Health Care and Immunizations in the Covid-19 Context

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the provision of essential health services worldwide, including routine immunizations. According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, in 2020, 25 years of progress in increasing immunization coverage worldwide was wiped out in 25 weeks, leading to the risk of resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases and threatening progress on other hard-won global health gains. Re-igniting progress on immunization coverage will require not just access to vaccines but also strong primary health care systems to efficiently deliver those vaccines to the public. Strong primary health care systems are also critical for extending other services to hard-to-reach populations, for advancing progress towards universal health coverage, and for promoting health security.

Please join the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security on Tuesday, May 18th, from 10:00a.m. – 10:45a.m. EDT for the first in a series of conversations about role of strong primary health care services in supporting routine immunizations and building resilience in the face of global health threats.

J. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, will offer opening remarks. Katherine E. Bliss, Senior Fellow with the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, will then moderate a conversation on the role strong primary health care services can play in supporting routine immunizations, as well as the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines. This expert panel will feature Asaf Bitton, Executive Director at Ariadne Labs; Nikolaj Gilbert, President and CEO of PATH; and Kerry Pelzman, Acting Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Global Health at USAID.

This event is made possible by the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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