Rotarians from across Delta came together Wednesday evening to give thanks to health-care workers and mark World Immunization Week.
Members from all three Delta Rotary clubs — North Delta, Ladner, and Tsawwassen — as well as Delta police circled Delta Hospital on Wednesday, April 29 in a caravan of cars decorated with signs, flags and balloons, honking their horns and waving to hospital staff, paramedics and patients.
The parade, timed to coincide with the nightly salute to frontline workers at 7 p.m., served to both thank hard working medical staff and first responders in the fight against COVID-19, and to recognize the importance of effective vaccines to protect against disease, and how far the world has come in fighting disease.
“Many people around the world, including several from Delta, have helped administer vaccine to many millions of people in the fight to end polio, sometimes at great risk to their health and safety,” said Rotary Club of Ladner president Bridget Jacob on behalf of the presidents of all three Delta Rotary clubs.
“For that reason, we always have tremendous respect for our health-care workers here at home, but especially now during this pandemic.”
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Rotary International launched its global campaign to fight polio 35 years ago, at a time when there were 350,000 cases of the crippling — and sometimes deadly — disease reported every year in 122 countries, according to a press release marking World Immunization Week, held this year April 24-30.
Since then, Rotary’s immunization campaign has helped international health organizations, foundations and governments reduce the number of cases to less than 200 in just two countries in 2019.
Each year, Rotary and its partners vaccinate more than 400 million children against polio, and Rotarians have contributed $1.9 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries from the disease.
“Today, 19 million people who would otherwise be paralyzed by polio are walking, and 1.5 million people who would otherwise have died are alive,” the release states.
Rotary is now using the vast infrastructure the organization has developed over the years to identify the polio virus and deliver vaccination campaigns in order help protect vulnerable populations from COVID-19, especially in polio-endemic countries. From Pakistan to Nigeria, the program is drawing on years of experience fighting polio outbreaks to support governments as they respond to the novel coronavirus.
The Rotary Foundation has also contributed $10 million to a variety of COVID-19 projects.
editor@northdeltareporter.com
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