Let’s Open Up Expert Knowledge for Immunisation Campaigns

This is a call to experts, donors and the public and private sector to open up expert knowledge for mass immunisation campaigns. Open-access knowledge for mass vaccination and immunisation campaigns is needed more than ever. COVID-19 vaccination campaigns have started around the world. While many countries are generally prepared, some countries – and even whole continents – are lacking in preparedness. Add on top, the need is high to restart the standard immunisation campaigns (for measles and polio) to avoid unnecessary loss of life. These campaigns have to be made ‘COVID-safe’, current designs need to be adjusted, materials need to be added, and sharing of adjusted protocols is required. Solvoz calls to partners to rapidly make this knowledge available for all by the use of open access technology and collaboration. Solvoz is the responsible procurement platform in aid, which provides an open-access solutions catalogue where expert knowledge can be shared.

Attention needed from COVID-19 vaccines to campaigns

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020. On the 31st of December 2020, they reported 81.5M confirmed cases globally. Currently, a lot of the attention is going to the allocation and funding of COVID-19 vaccines. WHO together with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) and other partners is working to ensure equitable access to vaccines in Africa through the COVAX facility. However, vaccine delivery at such a large and fast-paced scale comes with new technical and logistical challenges. Beyond cold chain limitations, the overall preparedness in low and middle income countries is very low. A global benchmark is set at 80% preparedness, however last month, research by WHO indicated Africa’s overall preparedness for the COVID-19 immunisation campaigns currently being stuck at 33%. This analysis by 40 African countries (Ministries of Health and WHO) regarding the preparedness level for COVID-19 vaccination covered ten key areas, for example around planning & coordination, service delivery and vaccine logistics. The study shows that many countries could rapidly improve by having access to and sharing knowledge, expertise and capacity. Open-access knowledge for mass vaccination and immunisation campaigns is more needed than ever. Solvoz calls to partner with experts, private and public sector and donors, to rapidly make this knowledge available for all – by the use of open access technology and collaboration.

Other neglected diseases 

These days, the whole world is learning about vaccine efficiency rates (the percentage reduction of disease in a vaccinated group of people compared to an unvaccinated group) as well as coverage rates to achieve herd immunity (to halt the pandemic disease and help protect whole communities or nations). The percentage of people who need to be immune in order to achieve herd immunity varies with each disease. For example, herd immunity against measles requires about 95% of a population to be vaccinated. The remaining 5% will be protected by the fact that measles will not spread among those who are vaccinated. For polio, the threshold is about 80%. The fraction of the population that must be vaccinated against COVID-19 to begin inducing herd immunity is not known. While the world is watching and getting prepared for mass vaccination campaigns against COVID-19, it is of the upmost importance that these other immunisation programs continue during the current pandemic.

Countries and organisations worldwide are experienced with mass vaccination campaigns. However, as COVID-19 started to disrupt immunisations, UNICEF, WHO and GPEI issued an urgent call that action is needed to protect the most vulnerable children from deadly and debilitating diseases.

‘COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on health services and in particular immunization services, worldwide. (…) But unlike with COVID, we have the tools and knowledge to stop diseases such as polio and measles. What we need are the resources and commitments to put these tools and knowledge into action. If we do that, children’s lives will be saved.’

– Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

‘We cannot allow the fight against one deadly disease to cause us to lose ground in the fight against other diseases. (…) Addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic is critical. However, other deadly diseases also threaten the lives of millions of children in some of the poorest areas of the world.’

– Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director

Beyond the call by WHO and UNICEF for additional financial resources to safely resume vaccination campaigns, also current campaigns have to be redesigned to make them ‘COVID-safe’. This is required to not lose further grounds to fight polio, measles and so many other deadly or debilitating diseases.

Call to share expertise 

All the knowledge on protocols and guidelines are there or being written, but like the vaccines itself not equally distributed. For the benefit of everyone, those have to be opened up systematically and coherently. Collaborating and partnering with numerous organisations enables complementary expertise to come together.

Solvoz and its foundation aims to open up expertise and develop solutions for mass vaccination and testing campaigns (including the transportation, storage and distribution of coronavirus vaccines). The purpose is to support the various actors to responsibly procure and prepare for implementation of these campaigns, taking into account specific needs, cultural values, the environment and physical context. The solutions developed will have a wide coverage of needed use cases.

What is Solvoz?

Solvoz is the the responsible procurement platform in aid. Solvoz allows users – aid organisations, institutions or health facilities – to plan and procure efficiently, effectively and responsible. Their support is unique by providing users with open-access expert knowledge to identify a need, providing guidance regarding criteria and requirements, and offering responsible solution packages (click here to see the Solvoz explainer video). Whereby the Solvoz Foundation enables an open-access database of expert knowledge for public benefit.

Create solutions on the platform

The Solvoz Foundation and the Solvoz platform are preparing for opening up knowledge for mass vaccination campaigns, for COVID-19 and creating COVID-safe campaigns for neglected diseases and other vital health care programs – and beyond. The collaborative solutions catalogue is built from the bottom up, with experts from multiple domains and various contexts to ensure responsible, efficient and effective solutions for project and program needs. Our first call is to experts to join this community to open up:

1. Creating solutions at the vaccination sites to ensure safety of staff and population being vaccinated. Many of these solutions are applicable for not only the coronavirus, but for vaccination campaigns of other diseases to ensure they are also COVID-safe.
2. Creating solutions that help organisations manage the logistic challenges of running campaigns such as equipment for distribution hubs.
3. Call to utilise existing knowledge and turn this into practical solutions for organisations’ running campaigns.

The Solvoz Foundation started this year with a community expert group on mass vaccination campaigns. The first solutions for mass vaccination campaigns are being built; as well as preparations for integrating COVID-Safe criteria into existing use cases.

Join the call to action 

We release an urgent call to action to collaborate for open-access knowledge, so countries can be ready when vaccines arrive. We want to support responders, institutions and organisations globally, who will enable to open lockdowns as soon as possible. And especially, to not lose further grounds to fight polio, measles and so many other deadly or debilitating diseases, to share knowledge to make those programs COVID-safe too.

1. We call upon your expertise to help building solutions and criteria, and to add use cases.
2. We ask for governments, institutions and organisations to share requests for specific knowledge and challenges that Solvoz can support.
3. We ask for industry partners to share expertise and facilitate funding.
4. We are looking for funding by donors and foundations, to enable impact and request challenges that Solvoz can support.