CLCI Summer Newsletter 2020

CLCI Summer Newsletter

Welcome to our second newsletter for 2020.

What an extraordinary year 2020 has been thus far as the world tackles COVID-19. This pandemic has affected all our lives in some way and for all those members and supporters who have been on the front line in their countries – a big Thank You. 👏

Although we have been unable to make a great deal of progress on our workplan for 2020, the Trustees of CLCI and the Secretariat have continued to remain in contact, and a report of our activities for the first six months of this year has been posted to the member’s area of the CLCI website .

Before restrictive movement measures were put in place throughout Europe, CLCI members and supporters were very active in Brussels. Read on to find out more.

Important Issues

Seasonal Influenza Vaccination: Progressing towards the EU's 75% Target
CLCI was represented by its Chair Daphne Holt at this meeting, which reflected on the 10^th anniversary of the EU Council’s Recommendations on seasonal influenza vaccination and discussed opportunities and approaches to increase vaccination rates. The event, held on 21^st January 2020, was organized by CLCI supporter Vaccines Europe and co-hosted by Members of European Parliament (MEP) Dolors Montserrat and Sara Cerdas.

Influenza remains a serious, vaccine-preventable disease which kills around 40,000 people a year in Europe. The event aimed to identify how to join forces to minimise the impact of influenza and improve control of the disease across Europe.

The meeting reported that some progress has been made. However, as stated in the EU State of Health Companion Report 2019, none of the EU Member States have reached the 75% target for influenza vaccination coverage among older people and at-risk groups, with the EU’s average vaccination coverage rate remaining at 43%.

Young Coalition for Prevention and Vaccination - Manifesto Launch
The Young Coalition for Prevention and Vaccination (YC4PV) was formed in 2019 and is composed of 30 young professionals working either in healthcare or in health policy. The Coalition’s main objective is to advocate the important role of vaccination and prevention across Europe from a youth perspective, both at a national and EU level.

The YC4PV manifesto was launched at a Think Young meeting at the European Parliament on January 21st, hosted by MEP Brando Benifei and moderated by Gary Finnegan, editor of Vaccines Today and a trustee of CLCI. The meeting was addressed via video by Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, and by Ethan Lindenburger, vaccine advocate. The panel then discussed aspects of the manifesto and the empowerment of young people to make their own health decisions, although it was also acknowledged that there is insufficient health literacy education in schools.

Isabela de la Marta, Principal Adviser for Health and Crisis Management, DGSanté, Gary Finnegan, Editor, Vaccines Today and MEP Brando Benifi listening to the discussion.

"Joined for Vaccination": Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy and Increasing Uptake in the EU - a multi-stakeholder approach.
The Active Citizenship Network launched the 2019-2024 term of the MEPs Interest Group “European Patient’s Rights & Cross-Border Healthcare” on the 28^thof February with a meeting on vaccine hesitancy. The event was hosted by MEP Brando Benifei and aimed to sensitize newly elected MEPs to carry forward the commitment on the topic for the new term. It highlighted the initiatives undertaken by the EU Joint Action on Vaccination and the IMI DRIVE project on influenza vaccines, opening them to a wider audience of institutions and other stakeholders, including citizens’ and patients' organisations and advocacy groups. The DRIVE presentation was delivered by the project’s coordinator and CLCI member Javier Diez-Domingo. The meeting also contributed to sharing best practices among all stakeholders involved in the field of citizens’ engagement on vaccination.

Mariano Votta, Director, ACN, and MEP Brando Benifi gave the welcome address.

DGSanté’s Coalition for Vaccination Annual Meeting

CLCI is an associate member of the Coalition for Vaccination and was represented at the annual meeting by Daphne Holt. The meeting was held in Brussels on 9^th March and was attended by 23 delegates from 13 organisations along with representatives from the European Commission’s DGSanté and the Joint Action on Vaccination. ECDC and UNICEF joined virtually.

Delegates heard presentations from the Joint Action on Vaccination, ECDC and UNICEF, who all work on producing training material on vaccinology, targeting pre-service and in-service health professionals. ECDC also presented the European Vaccination Information Portal (EVIP), which was launched during the European Immunisation Week 2020. DGSanté presented work on communicating about vaccination to better explain benefits and combat myths. CLCI member Barbara Rath presented the “Strengthening Education and Knowledge on Immunisation” (SEKI) project, a new innovation from the Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative and the European Academy of Paediatrics.

Covid-19 Notes

The WHO have published a draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. Twenty-six candidate vaccines are in clinical trials with six in phase three trials.
Vaccines Today has published two interesting articles “Coronavirus vaccine – who should get it first” and “What is R0?”
Chatham House has published an article co-authored by Prof David Salisbury “The Hurdles to Developing a COVID-19 vaccine: Why International Cooperation is Needed."

Message from the Chair
In the last newsletter I reported that the CLCI General Secretary Malcolm Taylor was in hospital following a fall while on a walking holiday. I am pleased to tell you that Malcolm is now recovering at home and will be back with us in due course. In the meantime, myself and the Vice Chair Sam Nye (CoMO) are overseeing the running of the secretariat.

Thank you for your continued support,
The CLCI Team