Advocate to Vaccinate 2024 Roundup

And that’s a wrap on Advocate to Vaccinate 2024! From March 20 – April 30, Shot@Life Champions across the U.S. collectively raised their voices, asking congressional offices to robustly fund global immunization programs in 2025. 

Setting up a meeting with a congressional office is the most direct and impactful way to advocate. And any Shot@Life Champion who comes away from their first meeting will say a similar thing: it’s not as intimidating as it may seem!  

Both in-person and virtually, advocates connected with their offices directly throughout Advocate to Vaccinate, reaching offices in 23 states through meetings and drop-bys. Several Champions also included broader global health asks for malaria vaccine programming in their meetings.  

Writing a piece is a great way to bring a global issue to the local level!  Champions submitted over 20 pieces across the country across the last two months. So far, nine of these articles have been published, including in Arizona, Florida, and Connecticut. Check out some of the great work from Reenu Varghese, Rhonda Alderman, and Priyambda Kumra.  

Advocacy is always more fun with friends, which Champions exemplified this spring by getting their friends and community involved in the efforts. Most notably, they hosted phone banks to help others learn how easy it is to call congressional offices.  

Shot@Life advocates come from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages. Dana DeShon set a great example of this by getting students involved this spring, visiting classes at Metamora Township High School to discuss global childhood immunization and how to become an advocate.  

Additionally, Shot@Life’s partner organizations and their members—the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, Nurses Who Vaccinate, the United Nations Association of the USA, and the Student National Pharmaceutical Association—activated their networks to take action to broaden the reach of the advocacy push. 

While Congress works on next year’s budget throughout the summer, we won’t yet know the impact of our funding requests for programs like UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. However, there are other ways in which we do see some immediate results! 

For World Immunization Week, members of Congress showed their support on social media: 

Beyond social media, members in the House of Representatives also voiced their support for polio eradication; 67 members, a record number, signed onto the Fiscal Year 2025 Polio Eradication Dear Colleague letter. Wild poliovirus remains endemic in just two more countries, and as such, the letter supports funding for vital polio eradication activities at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 

None of this would be possible without the dedication of Shot@Life Champions across the country, continually advocating to their policymakers. Interested in getting more involved with the campaign? Join us for an introductory advocacy training and keep an eye out for an upcoming announcement of the date for our virtual Mobilize to Immunize Fall Summit.