Lisa Menning, a public health expert serving as the team lead for Demand and Behavioural Sciences in the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and, Biologicals at the World Health Organization, offered a history of vaccines, noting that, as the world’s population has grown, initiatives related to vaccines have evolved and grown as well. She shared reports as well as performance benchmarks for vaccine coverage, showing the impact of vaccines on reducing disease burden. Dr Manoj Kurian, director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing, noted that understanding vaccines from the faith perspective is not only an intervention. “It is also a manifestation of dignity and trust across the lifespan,” he said. “Faith communities help translate this public health reality and this great benefit into local relationships, and language and action.” Gracia Violeta Ross, WCC programme executive for HIV, Reproductive Health, and Pandemics, cited the example of human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer, and how it still represents a challenge to the world—especially since the preventative vaccine is available only to some. “Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer among women,” said Ross. “The sad thing about this is that cervical cancer is largely preventable.” David McCoy, public health specialist and policy research lead at the United Nations University, International Institute for Global Health, reflected on how inequality leaders to under-resourcing vaccines, and how “big pharma”—or multinational pharmaceutical companies—are becoming increasingly financialized. KM Gopakumar senior researcher and legal advisor at the Third World Network, commented about the contracted market for vaccines. “Much of the production—much of the volume—is coming from developed countries,” he noted. Fr Moussa Naguib, a priest and a surgeon, chose to focus on related biblical texts, reflecting that doctors, medicines, and treatments are gifts from God. “That’s why this idea of refusing to use this medicine is not theological,” he noted. Dr Ursula Wüthrich-Grossenbacher spoke briefly on how some groups skip vaccines not only because of mistrust but because of a sense of arrogance. “They think they don’t need the vaccinations because someone will offer them care,” she said, using examples from the COVID-19 pandemic. Rev. Dr Stavros Kofinas, moderator of the WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing, closed the webinar with a prayer, and a brief reflection on how trust is built. “Trust is built on interpersonal relationships, and it is also built on community,” he said. The webinar positioned faith-based organisations as critical partners who translate public health concepts into local relationships and action. The dialogue pointed faith communities to integrating immunisation messages into sermons and youth work, training clergy as immunisation champions, establishing community listening spaces to voice experiences of exclusion and distrust. The discussions also sharpened the need in advocating for policies that prioritise the poorest and remove financial barriers to accessing immunisation services. | 
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