National Immunisation Strategy

Background

In May and June 2024, the Department of Health and Aged Care through the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control, undertook a public consultation on a new National Immunisation Strategy for 2025-2030. The consultation was based on a discussion paper, Towards a National Immunisation Strategy 2025-2030, which proposes a vision, mission, priority areas, and opportunities for action for the next Strategy.

Our submission

The Australians for Pandemic Prevention submission re-emphasised the importance of efforts by the new Australian CDC to work on pandemic prevention through a top-level strategy, rather than considering pandemic prevention only as a subordinate issue to other priorities. The submission also made the case for “pre-pandemic vaccination”. Pre-pandemic vaccination refers to proactive vaccination against high-risk strains to reduce the likelihood or consequences of future pandemics.

We also suggested a more proactive approach to pandemic preparedness through detailed scenario planning and practice in executing implementation measures.