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New EFIS report on European COVID-19 vaccination strategies

EFIS report vaccine lessons cover

Today, the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) has published a new expert report called ‘Lessons learned from European COVID-19 vaccination rollout programmes’ which features case studies of vaccination strategies across Europe in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report examines different steps taken to encourage vaccination uptake in a range of countries and important lessons we can incorporate to strengthen international preparedness for future pandemics and advance global health.

Based on the European case studies, the report outlines the following recommendations:

  1. Immunologists should collaborate across national borders to respond to health crises by sharing success stories and challenges to address common issues.
  2. We must work together to understand prominent concerns about vaccines and proactively increase public confidence in the life-saving benefits of vaccination.
  3. Immunology needs to be at the heart of national and international health policy, directly informing governments and engaging with the public in an open and accessible way. This can increase vaccine uptake and lower hospitalisations and death from infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
  4. Engaging and working closely with the public to create informative resources together is key to increasing confidence in vaccines.

This report has been produced by the EFIS Vaccine Task Force, a group of representatives from European immunology societies chaired by Dr Doug Brown, Chief Executive of the British Society for Immunology. The Task Force aims to tackle issues around vaccination at a European level by providing a strong, evidence-based and collective voice.

One of the major efforts of the Task Force, in collaboration with the British Society for Immunology, has been to provide reliable evidence-based information around vaccination, including infographics in several European languages. The EFIS Vaccine Task Force also produced a report on COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 which reviewed a range of areas such as effective scientific communication and public engagement, long-term immune monitoring programmes across Europe and equitable access to vaccines.


EFIS Vaccine Task Force’s membership

  • Dr Doug Brown (Chair), British Society for Immunology

  • Prof. Dr Ursula Wiedermann (Vice-Chair), Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology/Österreichische Gesellschaft für Allergologie und Immunologie

  • Dr Carmen Álvarez Domínguez, Spanish Society for Immunology/Sociedad Española de Inmunología

  • Prof. Christian Bogdan, German Society for Immunology/Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immunologie e.V.

  • Prof. Dr İhsan Gürsel, Turkish Society of Immunology/Türk İmmünoloji Derneği

  • Dr Srđa Janković, Immunological Society of Serbia/Društvo Imunologa Srbije

  • Prof. Claude LeClerc, French Society for Immunology/Société Française d’Immunologie

  • Prof. Massimo Locati, Italian Society for Immunology, Clinical Immunology and Allergology/Società Italiana Immunologia, Immunologia Clinica e Allergologia

  • Dr Alexandros Sarantopoulos, Hellenic Society of Immunology/Ελληνική Εταιρεία Ανοσολογίας

  • Prof. Anne Spurkland, Scandinavian Society for Immunology

  • Dr Frederico Regateiro, Portuguese Society for Immunology/Sociedade Portuguesa de Imunologia

  • Prof. Pierre Van Damme, Belgian NITAG (National Immunization Technical Advisory Board)

  • Prof. Felix Wensveen, Croatian Society for Immunology/Hrvatsko Imunološko Društvo

  • Prof. Aurelija Žvirblienė, Lithuanian Immunological Society/Lietuvos Imunologų Draugija

EFIS vaccine taskforce logo

Thank you to all the members of the EFIS Vaccine Task Force for their collaborative work to share knowledge and experience between immunologists and beyond, and in particular to Professor Anne Spurkland, Professor Felix Wensveen, Professor Aurelija Žvirblienė and Dr Doug Brown for sharing their views and experiences in the case studies.