CA25143 - Vaccines 360 degrees: Optimizing the use of vaccines for overall health benefits (VAC360)

Vaccines are extremely important public health interventions, but vaccine science and vaccine confidence are challenged. The vaccine debate is becoming polarised and politicised. This hampers vaccine science and fuels vaccine hesitancy. New knowledge about the broader immunomodulatory effects of vaccines and their potential to strengthen overall immune capacity is not sufficiently considered but may potentially strengthen vaccine confidence. Epidemiological studies have revealed that live vaccines can protect more broadly against unrelated infections. Supportive immunological data show that live vaccines can strengthen the innate immune system and thereby reduce the risk of other infections. Recent studies indicate that these effects extend to beneficial effects against non-communicable diseases and may reduce all-cause mortality in both children and adults. 

VAC360 aims to unite dispersed research groups working on broader immunomodulatory vaccine effects, immune training and vaccine hesitancy across Europe. Including a broad range of stakeholders, the objectives include to (i) establish common protocols and platforms for multi-country studies of the broader and overall health effects of vaccines, (ii) provide biomarkers, (iii) map the monitoring of broader vaccine effects across Europe, (iv) create a collaborative European network to empower young researchers to study vaccines, (v) depolarise the vaccine debate, and (vi) establish a structured dialogue with vaccine policy-makers to ensure that scientific evidence on broader vaccine effects informs vaccination policies and strengthens trust through transparent, evidence-based governance – with the overriding aim to achieve impactful vaccination programs with optimised timing and scheduling of vaccines across the lifespan.