Statement by UNICEF Representative to China - World Immunization Week

BEIJING, 27 April 2023 — “As we come to the end of this year’s World Immunization week on 30 April, UNICEF calls for collective and concerted efforts to catch up on children who missed out on being vaccinated during the pandemic, rebuild systems, and tackle major gaps in health systems.

“Globally, we see signs in many countries of declines in vaccine confidence. According to the Vaccine Confidence Project, in over 50 countries in which data are available, confidence in the importance of vaccines for children declined after the start of the pandemic.

“China is an exception, along with India and Mexico. China saw biggest increases among the 55 countries studied in the perception of importance of vaccines for children, with 95 percentage of population that currently (most recent year 2022) perceive vaccines as important for children.¹

“Immunization is one of the most effective public health interventions, giving every child the opportunity to grow up healthy and reach their full potential.

“We know that it will take hard work to maintain this level of perception, but we will remain vigilant in 2023 and the years to come. We will never give up working with our partners to ensure that every child, regardless of where they are, has access to the vaccines they need to not only survive, but thrive.” 

_{¹ UNICEF analysis based on data from The Vaccine Confidence Project, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 2022.}