John F.
Germ
Trustee Chair 2021-22
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Trustee chair's
message
When Rotary courageously stepped up
to pursue the dream of a polio-free world, we knew
realizing our dream wouldn’t be easy. But since
1988, working with our partners, we’ve brought
worldwide case counts down by 99.9 percent.
However, it’s not over ’til
it’s over. It will take courage. We’re
going to keep up the funding and keep on the pressure
until this fight is finished, and no child ever again
has to experience the devastating effects of polio.
As we mark World Polio Day on 24 October,
we can take heart; we continue to make progress, and
with the current low transmission rates of wild poliovirus
in Afghanistan and Pakistan, we have a unique opportunity
to interrupt transmission. We also have a new strategy
and vaccine that will bolster our eradication efforts.
To eradicate wild poliovirus and stop
outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus
(cVDPV), the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s
new strategy centers around several key areas: political
advocacy to create greater urgency and accountability
in the endemic and outbreak countries, improved engagement
with high-risk communities, improved operations and
polio surveillance, and the inclusion of polio immunization
in broader health programs. (For more on the new polio
eradication strategy, see page 30.)
Along with our new strategy, Rotary
and its partners are using a new tool, novel oral
polio vaccine (nOPV2), to help address outbreaks of
type 2 cVDPV. This new vaccine has been deployed in
a growing list of countries and is a promising development
in our quest to end polio once and for all.
But there is still much work to be done.
In particular, we need to remain strongly committed
to our goals in the face of recent events in Afghanistan.
As a nonpolitical organization, Rotary will continue
to do the work that is necessary to protect the health
of children everywhere.
After all the progress we’ve made
in our decades-long fight, the worst thing we could
do is to become complacent, so here’s where
you come in.
Let’s raise awareness of Rotary’s
role in polio eradication. And let’s double
down on our commitment and keep raising $50 million
each year for polio. Remember: Thanks to the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, any contribution you
or your Rotary or Rotaract club makes will be matched
2 to 1.
In Rotary, when we dream, we get behind
our dream with everything we can muster. We have always
risen to challenges — and now it is more important
than ever for us to rise again, with courage, to defeat
polio.
http://www.endpolio.org/donate.
John F. Germ
Trustee Chair 2021-22
