Preparing for a COVID-19 vaccine: Applying lessons from India’s polio program

To that end, Rotary is already drawing on past success, working to transition its extensive polio eradication knowledge and assets in India to support the government’s ongoing public health goals--such as measles and rubella elimination—and, in turn, the Indian government is now well-equipped to apply Rotary’s legacy to its newest goal, the fight against COVID-19.

If I were to equate this mammoth task with summiting Mt. Everest, I would say that we have readied our base camp, and are looking ahead to the challenges we’ll face. And so, keeping the framework of the polio eradication program in mind, we are using the lessons learned from Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in the following ways:

Rotary was the first organization to have a vision of a polio-free world. In 1988, we became a founding partner of the GPEI, along with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Later, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance joined our efforts. Each GPEI partner brings unique skills and leadership to the Initiative, and in particular, Rotary focuses on fundraising, advocacy, raising awareness, and mobilizing volunteers.

As Rotary brings multiple stakeholders together for polio eradication, India must apply this approach to a COVID-19 vaccine: the Indian government must work with organizations such as GAVI, the WHO, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, as well as the private sector, in order to establish protocols to ensure our population has quick, cost-effective, and equitable access to a forthcoming vaccine.

Regarding funding, Rotary and its members have contributed more than US$2.1 billion to fight polio and continue to raise US$50 million annually—and every dollar donated to Rotary’s PolioPlus fund is matched with two additional dollars from the Gates Foundation. As applied to a COVID-19 vaccine, adequate funding at each stage, from initial development to the final delivery of a vaccine, will be critically important. And so engaging global foundations and presenting credible (and equitable) distribution plans in order to secure financial commitment will be paramount.

As remains the case with polio, sustained financial support is imperative to the efficacy of a program of this scale.

With a vast population spread across diverse geographical terrains with varied climate patterns, India has been one of the most difficult locations, globally, from which to eliminate polio. Transporting vaccine from manufacturers to the field was an enormous operational and logistical exercise. In order to safely administer the oral polio vaccine (OPV) to children under the age of five throughout the country, extensive cold chain systems were set up to protect the efficacy of OPV by keeping it within a specific temperature range. Rotary played a significant role on this front, as 1.5 lakh members across the country stepped up at all levels, supporting polio efforts in a variety of ways, from advising on operations and logistics to delivering the OPV to communities far and wide.

The infrastructure Rotary and its GPEI partners established in India for the polio eradication program has already been used to assist in the transportation and dissemination of other critical vaccines, such as for measles, hepatitis B, and Japanese encephalitis, and now, we need to further leverage it to prepare for COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

We must build trust with those wary to accept a new vaccine. During the effort to eradicate polio in India, Rotary’s roots as a civil society organization engendered goodwill with communities across the country, and club members were able to bridge cultural differences and bring the OPV to many children, despite obstacles. Rotary members mobilized communities for mass polio vaccination campaigns each year, delivering the polio vaccine to India’s more than 170 million children twice a year. In addition to organizing games for children and distributing educational materials, Rotary deployed highly-regarded community influencers, engaged celebrities, and spearheaded campaigns to raise awareness for polio immunization and encourage vaccine acceptance.

Strategies and tactics will need to be updated to reflect today’s digital age. To build trust and adoption of a COVID-19 vaccine, we’ll need to focus on spreading awareness, curbing misinformation, and building trust by employing the appropriate social platforms as well as by engaging the appropriate local community leaders as messengers.

As the WHO’s South-East Asia Region—including India—was certified polio-free more than six years ago, and as the WHO’s African region was also certified wild polio-free in August, I am hopeful as we combat COVID-19 that we’ll be able to stop this disease, too.

This World Polio Day, as we look to build on the knowledge, expertise and success of the polio eradication program to tackle COVID-19, we will be inspired by these milestones. They demonstrate that if a major health threat like polio can be eliminated even under the most extreme and complex circumstances, then ultimately defeating COVID-19 will be possible.