Prioritizing Prevention in Healthcare: If Not Now, Then When?
We have all seen the devastating human impact of COVID-19. Globally, we have surpassed 1.5 million deaths, a number that nine months ago seemed unimaginable to many. Still today, it’s hard to comprehend — and it’s what continues to drive our efforts across the global health community to deliver a vaccine to the world.
As we face the profound consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the value of disease prevention to society is more apparent than ever. What we need now is for our health systems around the world to reflect this, with governments prioritizing and investing in prevention tools in order to protect both the lives of their people and the economic stability of their countries. We know just how high the stakes are — we’re living through them — and we cannot fail to step up. If not now, then when?
Prioritization of routine vaccination schedules
Recently, I had the great privilege of speaking at the World Health Summit, which brought together leaders from science, government, business, and civil society to share their perspectives on global health development in the age of COVID-19. My priority, of course, is vaccination — one of the most successful preventative health tools of all time, second only to clean water. Despite this well-established impact, vaccination currently makes up a disproportionately small part of prevention healthcare budgets (3%), and an even smaller part of the total healthcare spend globally (0.5%). To really focus on prevention in the future, we need to look more closely at how we can innovate and expand access to vaccination for all.
This doesn’t just mean babies and children, but also older adults for whom illnesses like seasonal flu and pneumococcal disease pose a serious danger. Increasing adult immunization rates for vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases can also help healthcare systems to maximize the availability of resources during the pandemic. This is why guidance issued by the WHO specifies that immunization services are an essential component of health services and should be maintained as long as pandemic response measures allow.
Establishing new policies to better protect vulnerable groups
Having older parents, it’s been eye-opening to see the COVID-19 pandemic from their perspective. The way in which older adults have been so disproportionately affected by COVID-19, both directly and indirectly, has highlighted the need to establish effective health policies that focus specifically on our aging population and to address their most common healthcare barriers.
One way in which governments can better protect older people is to support the roll-out of pharmacist-led vaccination in communities, an initiative supported by The International Pharmaceutical Federation. For years, pharmacists have been an underutilized health resource in many countries, and we have heard from pharmacists that they stand ready to take on vaccination to help protect their local communities. To make this possible, governments around the world must update legal and regulatory requirements to enable pharmacists to administer vaccinations.
Some progress has already been made, with pharmacy-led flu vaccination programs now available in more than 30 countries worldwide. These efforts have been shown to increase vaccine coverage, and to better serve those older adults who face accessibility issues or difficulties in scheduling appointments in other settings. Pharmacies tend to be located in the heart of communities and frequently operate extended opening hours, often enabling healthcare to be delivered as close to home as possible. I myself have benefited from this convenience in the U.S., getting my flu shot efficiently at my local pharmacy rather than needing to schedule an appointment with my physician. With access barriers exacerbated by the current pandemic, and our health systems stretched, there is no better time to make pharmacists a key partner in vaccination around the globe.
Commitment to innovation
Prioritization of prevention goes beyond making better use of vaccines that we already have available to us. It demands a greater commitment to vaccine innovation to expand our arsenal and to protect even more people from the threat of infectious disease. This innovation is needed to develop more effective vaccines than those available today for diseases like flu and tuberculosis; to explore vaccination throughout a person’s lifespan; and critically, for diseases where there have been no vaccine breakthroughs to date. COVID-19 vaccine development programs that we have seen advanced this year are testament to what a united commitment to innovation has the potential to achieve.
COVID-19 has taught us so much, but for me, the success of collaboration for innovation is something that we must continue to take forward. As an industry, we’ll need to re-evaluate the way in which we work together in the long-term, not just in the face of a deadly pandemic. Imagine what strides we can make on other infectious diseases if we sustain this commitment to radical innovation in the future.
2020 has been a year that will transform how we perceive preventative healthcare. Let it also be the year in which we convert this awareness to action and advocacy, in order to establish policies and build infrastructure that work to prevent disease. This is our shot to reduce health disparities for individuals right now and to ensure the sustainability of our health systems in the future.
The time is now.
Nanette Cocero: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nanettecocero/
