A letter of gratitude to a person I have never met
Important information about vaccination
- русский
- English
At UNICEF, we are well aware of why vaccination is important. Thanks to the work of our team around the world, 45 percent of children on Earth have already been vaccinated. Once we were also children, and perhaps if it hadn't been for vaccines, we, and many other children we work with, would have never existed in the first place.
We are writing this letter of gratitude from the entire UNICEF team and from every child who is alive today thanks to vaccines. Because we want to say thanks.
Thanks to virologist Jonas Salk for the polio vaccine. Thanks to Max Theiler, a Nobel prizewinner, for the yellow fever vaccine. Thanks to Kati Kariko, whose work on mRNA has helped us fight COVID-19.
Thanks to the factory workers who fill the vials of vaccines. Thanks to the scientists who have created solar-powered refrigerators where vials can be stored safely. Thanks to the boat crews, pilots and drivers who braved the rivers during the rainy season or traveled many miles in the snow to bring the first dose of vaccine to babies. Thanks to doctors and nurses who make sure that the injections are not too painful.
Thanks to Elvis Presley who, in 1956, was vaccinated minutes before going on stage to talk about polio and how to protect yourself from it. Thanks to Jim Grant, Executive Director of UNICEF, who helped raise the global childhood vaccination rate from 20 percent to 80 percent in the 1980s.
Thanks to the World Health Organization, which launched the immunization program in 1966 and wiped out smallpox in just 11 years.
Now there is only one person left to thank: and it is you. This is a letter of gratitude to you. If you have vaccinated yourself or your children, you are a part of a living chain that protects each of us. You are living proof of what humanity can do through selflessness, cooperation and love.
Therefore, thank you from the entire UNICEF team and from every child who has survived thanks to vaccines.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
You can watch the video letter here. Click here for answers to questions about vaccinations.
