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Active Citizenship Network (ACN) is glad to invite you on the 20^th of July 2021, from 14.30 to 16.00 CEST, to the digital event titled “Routine vaccinations in time of Covid-19 across Europe: a multi-stakeholder evaluation”.
It will be held in the framework of the cycle of EU Webinars «Health at the heart of the future of Europe», which ACN will hold to feed the debate of the Conference on the Future of Europe and it will include the presentation of the results of the qualitative survey realized in different EU countries for the project: “Protecting the value of vaccination during -and after- the COVID-19 pandemic across Europe: impact, experiences and perspectives from citizens’ and patients’ advocacy groups & relevant stakeholders”.
It will start by discussing the impact of Covid-19 on the new management of national immunization plans, with concrete suggestions and experiences from patient organizations, healthcare professionals and institutions. For more information please click here and write to d.quaggia@activecitizenship.net

Survey on the first period of the COVID-19 Vaccine campaign across Europe
With the contribution of an expert committee - and taking into consideration the EU Commission’s key steps for effective vaccination strategies and vaccines deployment - the online questionnaires promoted by Active Citizenship Network will explore what has been done and what should be done in the national immunization plans across Europe. It is realized in the framework of the EU project “Protecting the value of vaccination during -and after- the COVID-19 pandemic across Europe: impact, experiences and perspectives from citizens’ and patients’ advocacy groups & relevant stakeholders” and it is addressed to PAGs (Patients Advocacy Groups), citizens’ organizations, national and international healthcare experts, representatives of national institutions dealing with vaccination. To fill the online qualitative survey, click here. For more information, please write to d.quaggia@activecitizenship.net

To know more:

Read our engagement on vaccination at the national & EU level

Our recent publications on vaccination-related issues at the EU level
In the past months, Active Citizenship Network published some articles focused on vaccination, on international peer review journals and healthcare specialized media. They are listed below:

JOURNAL OF VACCINES RESEARCH & VACCINATION (Volume 7 • Issue 1 • 100017 - published on Apr 16, 2021): Enlarging access to vaccination in Italy according to the citizens and the pharmacists’ perspective.

“LATEST STUDIES ON IMMUNOLOGY” (eBook published on Apr. 2021): Chapter 1 "Vaccination: the pathway for a concrete citizens’ engagement"

Leading global health and private sector organizations come together to create the alliance for advancing health online to improve global health outcomes.
An independent global research fund was established to support a better understanding of the relationship between social media and confidence in the COVID-19 and routine vaccinations. On June 10th, leaders from the technology, healthcare, global development, and academic sectors have come together to announce the Alliance for Advancing Health Online, a new initiative to advance public understanding of how social media and behavioral sciences can be leveraged to improve the health of communities around the world. The Alliance will bring together Bay Area Global Health Alliance, the CDC Foundation, Facebook, the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, MSD, Sabin Vaccine Institute, the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization. This multi-year initiative will initially focus on addressing vaccine hesitancy and vaccine equity with a strong focus on historically excluded or marginalized communities. In addition, the Alliance intends to create a global network of centers of social media and health research focused on improving health behavior via online platforms. As part of the broader initiative, the first step is the establishment of an independent Vaccine Confidence Fund to support research on how social media and online platforms can be leveraged to best support confidence in and uptake of COVID-19 and routine vaccinations around the world. The goal of this initial research is to produce timely, practical applications, focused on historically excluded or marginalized communities globally. The Vaccine Confidence Fund will also provide grants to researchers and organizations that are exploring how to best use social media and digital platforms to understand and address vaccine hesitancy in order to help build confidence in vaccines. Proposals are due by August 6, 2021. More information on the Alliance can be found here.

ACN joins the Steering Group on Influenza Vaccination, to better foster among citizens the annual EU Flu Day in October
With the intense focus currently being placed on the pandemic, it will be crucial to keep ensuring that other infectious diseases like influenza remain a key public health priority. Influenza will continue to place a considerable (while preventable) burden on people's health and the health systems across Europe as experienced every year. As EU Member States’ COVID-19 vaccination programmes get closer to completion, and as Europe begins to re-open, the risk of high influenza infection rates also re-emerges.
For this reason, Active Citizenship Network well accepted the invitation to join in July 2021 the Steering Group on Influenza Vaccination, a coalition of organisations active on influenza vaccination since years with the objective to promote an increased uptake of influenza vaccination across Europe. Special initiatives will be organized to support the EU Flu Day (to know more about the 2020 edition, click here).
The Group brought together policymakers, patient group representatives, clinicians, and industry representatives such as ECPM, Waidid, ESWI, LSHTM - VaccineConfidenceProject, EFA, ESNO, EFPC, PGEU.

“Value-based Vaccination: What Is the Cost of Non-vaccination for Public Health?”
Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC) offers a new value(s)-based immunization approach for sustainable and resilient healthcare systems. Exploring the full value of vaccinations could allow a better evaluation of their health-related and care-related productivity gains, community externalities and impact on social responsibility and cohesion.
Last 30 of June 2021, the President of Cittadinanzattiva took part as panelist to the international webinar organized by the World Federation of Public Health Associations.
The initiative brought together experts from different fields to showcase the value-based decision-making in vaccination by addressing the evidence needed to demonstrate the full value of vaccination. Furthermore, the event outlined steps along the decision-making pathway to ensure a value-based vaccination is recognized when designing and implementing policies at the supranational, regional, and national levels.

“The Economist Intelligence Unit's Responsiveness Project”: Advisory Panel Meeting
The Economist Intelligence Unit has invited the Director of Active Citizenship Network to join the “Covid-19 Responsiveness” project as part of the Advisory Panel. The Advisory Panel is composed of experts with diverse insights and perspectives and the first Advisory Council meeting was held on Friday, 25 June 2021.
The purpose of the overall project, supported by Sanofi, is to identify possible factors contributing to success in handling Covid-19 across a range of countries so that valuable knowledge can be shared and lessons can be learned. The ultimate goal is to develop evidence-based policy takeaways. To know more, please click here.

“Calls to Action for Immunisation for All Ages”
The Immunisation for All Ages (IFAA) initiative, supported by Pfizer, is - through civil society action - working to combat inequity and improve access to immunisation to help promote health throughout life, to preserve function and to help prevent death and disability. Active Citizenship Network in June 2021 joined the first of a series of roundtable meetings focused on “Protecting and Progressing Routine Immunisation. The IFAA Manifesto that Active Citizenship Network and many other organizations including the International Federation on Ageing supports has three calls to action to promote immunisation throughout the life course. To know more, click here, to download the Manifesto, click here

“Vaccine hesitancy and uptake. From research and practices to implementation”: EU survey
As a stakeholder of the EU-Jav, Active Citizenship Network has contributed to the EU Joint Action on Vaccination survey “Vaccine hesitancy and uptake. From research and practices to implementation”, published on June 2021 after being submitted to the European Commission. Click here to download the document rich of good practices and lessons learned identified through the data gathering.

YC4PV Online Campaign Toolkit
Active Citizenship Network supported the Young Coalition for Prevention and Vaccination (YC4PV) Online Campaign Toolkit. The initiative has been launched in June 2021 with the goal to help younger generations engage in online conversations about immunization. To download the toolkit, click here.

#VaccineChamp campaign
Active Citizenship Network supported the social media campaign launched on 12 April 2021 as part of this year's European Health Parliament. The campaign, #VaccineChamp, is a youth initiative from Europe, aiming to equip citizens and people living in Europe with trustworthy information on vaccination. You can find the campaign website online here. This project aims to #ShareTheScience, providing easy access in a one-stop shop manner to reliable information on vaccination and COVID-19 vaccines in particular. By doing so, all we hope is to help tackle mis- and dis-information online surrounding vaccination.

Call to Action on Routine and Life-course immunisation
Active Citizenship Network endorsed the Call to Action on Routine and Life-course immunisation drafted by Vaccine Europe. With the COVID-19 vaccine rollout throughout Europe and the world, we've reached a key milestone in the fight against the pandemic. Nevertheless, routine vaccinations remain an essential part of protecting people's health, and it's hugely important to continue with them. To emphasize this message, the Routine Life-course Immunisation campaign has been launched last 11 February 2021, with a Call to Action to governments and global, European and national stakeholders. Click for the gifs ( 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 ). To download the document, click here.

Coalition for Vaccination Manifesto
As part of the Coalition, Active Citizenship Network has been involved in defining the content of the Manifesto published on 9 February 2021 by the Coalition for Vaccination to encourage healthcare professionals to get vaccinated against COVID-19. To download the Manifesto, click here.

“Prevention and Vaccines in the COVID-19 era: Bold choices for financing immunisation systems”
Active Citizenship Network was invited last January 2021 to the EU roundtable providing a loud voice for citizens across Europe who overwhelmingly seek to be protected from preventable diseases. The webinar was attended by almost 90 experts, healthcare professionals, EU and Member State level policymakers and patient groups. The report “Sustainable Immunization Financing in Europe”, presented during the event, is available at this link and its accompanying policy brief can be accessed here.

“Changing the Conversation on Adult Vaccination: Good Practice in Multisectoral Engagement”
Active Citizenship Network was invited last January 2021 by the International Federation on Ageing to the EU event detailing elements of good practice in the pursuit of improved adult vaccination. The IFA's webinar allowed to explore multisectoral action; its purpose and importance in helping to influence and shape policy and tangible actions directed to at-risk populations. To know more click here, and to see a video introduction, click here.

“Vaccination Advocacy Toolkit Advisory Group Meeting”
To inform the development of the Vaccination Advocacy Toolkit (VAT), it is critical to gain a deeper understanding of advocacy toolkits that are acknowledged as good practice. With findings from the analysis of five advocacy toolkits with varying objectives, elements, and formats, the International Federation on Ageing last January 2021 involved Active Citizenship Network among other stakeholders to inform an international group discussion and determination on the elements necessary in the VAT to influence and stimulate vaccination policies and practice in the most at-risk populations.

Agreements to reinforce our policy on vaccination at the European and global level
Recently, Active Citizenship Network signed new Memorandums of Understanding with the following organizations:

The Coalition for Life-Course Immunisation (CLCI) is a diverse network of expert individuals and associations representing public health, patients, academics and health professionals from across Europe. CLCI is committed to preventing infectious disease over the life-course by highlighting the benefits of wide-scale immunisation. Vaccines are not just for children: Active Citizenship Network and CLCI believe that vaccines are an important part of daily life at all ages and stages.

The International Federation on Ageing (IFA) is an international non-governmental organization with a membership base comprising government, NGOs, academics, industry, and individuals in 80 countries. The IFA began operations in 1973, at a time when the social and economic impact of population ageing was only beginning to be understood by governments around the world. Active Citizenship Network and IFA agreed to cooperate in order to better protect progress of vaccination throughout life.

Excellence in Pediatrics Institute (EIPI), an association that provides continuing medical education to a global network of over 45,000 child health care professionals. EIPI's purpose is to act as a hub for sharing the latest developments and advice with all stakeholders involved in the care of children and adolescents. The agreement with ACN is also focused on developing a common initiative on vaccination in pediatrician age.

European Patient Digital Health Awards (PDHA) 2021: Deadline July 25th, 2021
Active Citizenship Network, officially involved in the Jury, is happy to announce that the European Patient Digital Health Awards (PDHA) 2021 is officially ready to receive all of the innovative and interesting Digital Health solutions for improving care and quality of life for patients and their caregivers.
European PDHA 2021 is intended to directly involve patients and patient advocacy associations in an auditing process that highlights their needs and capitalizes on their experiences as drivers of digital health thinking.
Applications must be submitted in their entirety between 4:00 pm CET 8 June 2021 and 6:00 pm CET 25 July 2021. Read more and apply here.

21 September 2021: Virtual Roundtable Day on Influenza Vaccination
On 21 September MEP Dolors Montserrat will host the Roundtable Day on Influenza Vaccination, to adopt a forward-looking approach on how to anticipate seasonal influenza vaccine demand and ensure appropriate access to vaccines, while unlocking the potential of political and population engagement. The Director of Active Citizenship Network has been invited as panelist. The roundtable programme will consist of two discussions, focused on developing a long-term vision for influenza preparedness, as well as Engaging political, civil society and public health stakeholders on influenza vaccination in Europe. Click here to register.

29 Sept. 2021 World Heart Day: “Promoting civic information to better address the collateral damage of COVID-19 on cardiovascular disease across Europe” EU webinar
The event organized by Active Citizenship Network is scheduled for the next 29 of September 2021 in occasion of the Annual “World Heart Day” in order to spread awareness about heart disease and stroke prevention. This is the perfect day to quit smoking, start exercising and start eating healthy – all in the name of keeping your heart rate in good conditions, and improving the health and well-being of people all over the world. On this occasion, Active Citizenship Network will show for the first time at the EU level ad hoc video messages realized as part of the multi annual EU project “Increasing consciousness and access to treatment, reducing the burden of cardiovascular diseases across Europe”. The initiative will be realized in a digital manner and held in the framework of the cycle of EU Webinars «Health at the heart of the future of Europe», which ACN will hold to feed the debate of the Conference for the Future of Europe. To know more click here.

29 Oct. 2021 World Stroke Day: “EU PAGs & citizens together in the fight against stroke” EU training seminar
Evidence and data collected during the pandemic outbreak show that COVID-19 has had a significant impact on patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD).
According to an extensive worldwide survey by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the number of heart attack patients seeking urgent hospital care has dropped by more than 50% during the COVID-19 outbreak, and this was the strongest evidence yet of the collateral damage caused by the pandemic. Fear of catching the coronavirus means even people in the midst of a life-threatening heart attack are too afraid to go to the hospital for life-saving treatment.
The initiative organized by Active Citizenship Network will focus on stroke, and it could be considered the ideally follow up of the multi annual EU project on cardiovascular disease, realized with the support of 3 EU expert networks (including SAFE-Stroke Alliance for Europe), the scientific support of the Italian Society of HCPs and 20 organizations coming from 15 Countries. To know more click here.