Looking back now, more than one year after the start of our project, we can proudly declare that we achieved quite a lot: we selected and published a variety of materials on the topic of vaccines and vaccination on our website, we held webinars in which we invited experts to discuss vaccine communication, we took part in social media campaigns to raise awareness on the benefits of immunisation, and we collaborated with other projects with a similar mission.
What we realised, though, is that, while we promoted our achievements as the result of a collective effort from the consortium and the Coalition for Vaccination, we hadn't shed the light on individual members: the member organisations of the Coalition for Vaccination that make everything possible through their work and commitment. This is how we came up with the idea of the #MeetTheCoalitionForVaccination - a social media campaign that will run for a few months, in which we focus on each of our members.
We are starting off today with one of our co-chairs: the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME), representing national medical associations across Europe. CPME has a long history of over six decades: it was born in Amsterdam, in 1959, at the intiative of the Six National Medical Associations of the Member States of the European Economic Community (consisting then of France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium). Over the course of the past decades, the activity scope of the CPME was broadened to reflect the new European legislation regarding the medical profession.
Today, CPME act as a "patient's advocate", safeguarding the standards of the medical profession, but also advocating for the access to high-quality healthcare for everyone. Other objectives include promoting international cooperation among doctors and between them and other medical professions, as well as advocating for good working conditions - free from the interference of administration, economy, or insurances.
In terms of policies, CPME cover areas from public health and disease prevention, to digital health and medical ethics. They are involved in a variety of EU-funded projects and often speak up against health inequalities.
If you're interested in further details, you can check out their website here.