Nobel Calling event with Karolinska Institutet and UNICEF about the global vaccination program
Every year in October, when the recipients of the Nobel Prizes are announced, the Nobel Prize Museum organizes events and meetings in collaboration with, among others, Karolinska Institutet. This year Professor Tobias Alfvén from the Department of Global Public Health teamed up with Secretary General of UNICEF Sweden Pernilla Baralt for a seminar about vaccination.
This year marks 50 years since the UNICEF and WHO's global vaccination program was launched, a milestone that has saved 154 million lives worldwide. Immunization is the single greatest contribution of any health intervention to ensure babies not only see their first birthdays but continue leading healthy lives into adulthood.
Tobias Alfvén presented the history of vaccines, from the first discovery in 1796 to Covid-19. In Sweden, the first immunisation against smallpox took place in 1801, and compulsory vaccination of children was introduced as early as 1816. WHO certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980, making smallpox the only human disease to have been eradicated to date.
Pernilla Baralt, Secretary General of UNICEF Sweden highlighted how the latest pandemic and the ongoing wars have reversed the immunisation progress, leaving millions of children unvaccinated. She stressed that the challenge goes beyond vaccine costs—it’s about reaching families in remote areas and building trust, so parents feel confident bringing their children for vaccinations.