The Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex, Mims Davies has supported the launch of the British Society for Immunology report “Protecting the world: Celebrating 200 years of vaccine research”, highlighting the importance of continued support of research into new vaccines to keep us all healthy in the future.
COVID-19 has affected the lives of everyone within our communities and we are all working together and playing our part to stay at home to stop the spread of this virus. Meanwhile, researchers are busy in UK labs working hard to develop a new vaccine against the Coronavirus. This report from the British Society for Immunology underlies how important this work is and why we must continue to support this type of research in the long-term to stop the spread of all infectious diseases.
Vaccination is one of the safest and effective public health measures in history and all children deserve to have access to it. While children in the UK benefit from our world-leading vaccine programme, an organisation called Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has made considerable progress internationally. UK investment alone in Gavi has enabled 760 million children to be immunised and saved 1.4 million lives over the last five years. This type of investment in international collaboration and vaccine R&D is the key to protecting the health of people around the world.
Commenting, the Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex, Mims Davies said:
“I welcome this timely report from the British Society for Immunology and support their call to celebrate vaccine research in the UK. I know people in Mid Sussex are grateful to the scientists and doctors who are working around the clock to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 that will save many lives.
“I am delighted to hear that UK immunology research continues to lead the world, but we must carry on investing in this vital work to support scientists in the fight against infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, and boost our global efforts to keep people safe and particularly to work to end preventable child deaths.”
Also commenting, Dr Doug Brown, Chief Executive of the British Society for Immunology, said:
“Vaccines save lives. The British Society for Immunology is pleased to publish this new report showcasing 200 years of pioneering vaccine research in the UK and highlighting why continued investment in research is important. We are grateful for the support in our call to keep up this life-saving progress.
“We are all supporting our researchers in developing a new vaccine against COVID-19. The UK leads the world for the quality of our research in this area, but we are also standing shoulder to shoulder with our international colleagues to address the challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. By strengthening vaccine research both in the UK and globally, vaccines can continue to save millions of lives around the world.”
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Notes for editors:
‘Protecting the world: celebrating 200 years of vaccine research’ has been published as part of the British Society for Immunology’s Celebrate Vaccines work to recognise the importance that vaccine research plays in improving global public health. You can download a full copy at www.celebratevaccines.com/policy.
The next replenishment conference for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, is due to take place virtually on 4 June, hosted by the UK. This event will aim to raise funds for Gavi’s next strategic cycle to immunise 300 million more children and save over 7 million lives. https://www.gavi.org/