Among our blessings in this holiday season, the most precious are our children. Yet at home and across the world, children's health is threatened by contagious diseases. In 2022, 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthdays from preventable health problems such as diarrhea, pneumonia, and measles.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham deserves thanks for fighting against these tragic losses by supporting Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a highly successful international partnership that provides vaccines for kids who might otherwise die or suffer lifelong poor health.Since 2000, according to gavi.org, Gavi has helped to vaccinate more than 1 billion children in low-income countries, saving 17.3 million young lives. Over the next five years, Gavi plans to reach another 500 million kids who urgently need vaccines that are routinely available to children in the U.S.
Gavi not only supplies vaccines against such illnesses as polio, measles, rubella, and DPT, it also supports vaccine manufacturing in Africa and has spurred the development of new vaccines for global killers, malaria and pneumococcus. Gavi gets vaccines to children faster and buys vaccines in bulk, making disease prevention cost-effective. According to the World Health Organization, greater investment in vaccination could cut global antibiotic use, reducing the number of future deaths caused by antibiotic resistance.The world's children are counting on U.S. lawmakers such as Graham to continue to champion Gavi and other programs that will help children live to grow up healthy.