Annually, the CDC designates August as National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). The primary goals of NIAM include highlighting the importance of obtaining recommended vaccinations throughout all stages of life and encouraging people to discuss current vaccine recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with their primary healthcare providers and to stay up-to-date with these vaccinations based on their vaccine status and health needs. NIAM also provides healthcare providers, including pharmacists, with an opportunity to educate patients with accurate, clinical evidence–based information about the efficacy, safety, and benefits of vaccinations and to dispel common misinformation that often deters people from obtaining vaccinations.

A vaccine is defined as a biological preparation intended to generate immunity to a specific disease that is administered to stimulate the body’s immune response against specific infectious agents or diseases and is a simple, safe, and effective way of protecting against harmful diseases before exposure to them and in controlling outbreaks of certain diseases.

Various health organizations in the United States and across the globe indicate that vaccines are critical to promoting public health and remain the most effective means of protecting individuals from certain diseases and/or lessening the severity of illness, as well as controlling infectious disease outbreaks. Literature indicates that the development of safe and efficacious vaccination against diseases that cause substantial morbidity and mortality has been one of the top 10 scientific advances of the 21st century.

The World Health Organization estimates that across the globe, immunizations prevent 3.5 million to 5 million deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases annually. The CDC indicates that vaccines are responsible for preventing an estimated 2.5 million deaths annually. The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases notes that in the U.S., vaccine-preventable diseases account for more mortality annually than traffic accidents, breast cancer, or HIV/AIDs, with statistics reporting more than 50,000 adults in the U.S. die annually from vaccine-preventable diseases such as influenza, RSV, COVID-19, and measles despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines.

While vaccinations are not 100% effective, they are highly effecacious in eradicating some diseases, offering protection against certain illnesses, and reducing the incidence of severe illness/infections, including morbidity and mortality and potentially serious disease-related complications.

Ongoing research efforts continue to expand technologies with regard to the development of vaccines, such as mRNA technology. For example, the FDA approved the first mRNA vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19, marketed as Comirnaty vaccine, under emergency use authorization (EUA) and full FDA approval on December 11, 2020, and August 23, 2021, respectively. Another mRNA COVID vaccine received EUA approval and full FDA approval on December 18, 2020, and January 31, 2022, respectively.

The development and approval of these novel vaccines aided in controlling the spread of the COVID-19 virus and prevented and reduced the incidence of severe infections, related complications, hospitalizations, and death. Moreover, the recent approval of the first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines in 2023 provided individuals, especially those in vulnerable patient populations such as individuals aged 60 years and older, with safe and effective means of preventing and reducing lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV virus, severe infection, related complications and providing protection to those at most significant risk of RSV infection.

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