11th LifeCourse Summit: Immunization Rollout Case Studies

Lifecourse Immunization SummitDay 2 | Friday 4 December

09:00 – 13:30

Immunization Implementation in Europe

Across Europe, the science of immunization is largely settled; what still varies is implementation, who gets reached, how quickly a system responds, and whether protection holds once the early effort fades. This meeting brings together clinicians, public health leaders, and policy experts to examine how immunization programs across Europe have been implemented and to draw lessons, from successes and setbacks alike, that can shape policy.

Through four real-world case studies (maternal RSV and the Kent meningococcal B outbreak in the UK, France’s move to a mandate-driven system, and the case for adult immunization), the meeting works toward one goal: to translate evidence into concrete actions that unify and align immunization policy across Europe.

09:00 – 10:00

ACT 1 - RSV Maternal Vaccination in the UKWhat maternal protection can achieve on its own

Jaime Borjas-Howard

UK Health Security
Agency (UKHSA)

What two UK seasons of maternal RSV reveal

Presenting the UK’s maternal RSV program as a real-world test of what maternal vaccination can achieve on its own. Examining the first two seasons, the protection gained against infant hospitalization and the coverage reached, and what the data cannot yet tell us about who was reached and who was missed.

Deborah Longe

Royal Free London
NHS Foundation
Trust (UK)

Earning confidence and reaching every woman

Understanding what it takes to earn a pregnant woman’s confidence in vaccination, from the midwifery frontline: the real drivers of uptake and hesitancy in pregnancy, from trust and fears to timing and who owns the antenatal offer, and what it would take for protection to reach every pregnant woman.

INTERVENTIONS

Rukshana Kapasi

Barnardo’s

Equity: Discussing the socioeconomic barriers that keep maternal vaccination from reaching every family, leaving gaps of unprotected infants, and how to close them.

Christine Magendie

European Confederation of
Primary Care
Paediatricians (ECPCP)

Primary care: Discussing how far infant protection can rest on maternal vaccination alone, and where primary care and pediatricians can contribute most.

Marta Lomazzi

World Federation of Public
Health Associations
(WFPHA)

European policy: Discussing how differently European countries protect infants against RSV and whether Europe could move toward a more aligned, expert-guided approach.

Speaker to be announced

Confidence & trust: Discussing what research on vaccine confidence shows about safety concerns in pregnancy and what shifts them at a population level.

10:00 – 11:00

ACT 2 - Meningococcal B in the UKFrom outbreak to adolescent protection

Helen Campbell

UK Health Security
Agency (UKHSA)

The Kent outbreak and the emergency response

Presenting the 2026 Kent outbreak as a real-world test of how a system responds when meningococcal B strikes young adults at scale. Understanding the immediate response: the emergency vaccination, prophylaxis and public communication mounted within days. Examining what it revealed about where routine protection reaches, and where it runs out.

Vinny Smith

Meningitis Research
Foundation (MRF)

From outbreak to a decision still pending

Presenting the path from the policy positions before the outbreak to the new expert recommendation to extend MenB protection into adolescence, now awaiting a government decision. Considering, through a civil-society lens, why the gap between recommendation and decision matters, and what would make protection complete and durable, keeping the goal of defeating meningitis by 2030 in view.

INTERVENTIONS

Rukshana Kapasi

Barnardo’s

Equity: Discussing how to reach adolescents and young adults outside mainstream education and close the gaps in protection.

Kitty Mohan

Standing Committee of
European Doctors (CPME)

Preparedness: Discussing what a country should have in place before the next outbreak, so the response is planned rather than improvised.

Marta Lomazzi

World Federation of Public
Health Associations
(WFPHA)

European policy: Discussing whether meningitis has slipped down Europe’s agenda behind recent respiratory threats and how to bring it back into national priorities.

Christine Magendie

European Confederation of
Primary Care
Paediatricians (ECPCP)

Primary care: Discussing primary care’s role once an emergency response ends, from catch-up and recall to conversations with families.

11:00 – 11:30 · Break

11:30 – 12:15

ACT 3 - France: How Policy Changed the TideStrong policy interventions and the primary-care view

Catherine Weil-Olivier

Université Paris Cité

How mandates turned the tide

Presenting France’s transformation from Western Europe’s most vaccine-hesitant country into a mandate-driven system in under a decade, a rare case of decisive policy changing the tide, and the political choices and structural reforms that moved coverage where communication alone had not.

Christine Magendie

European Confederation of
Primary Care
Paediatricians (ECPCP)

The view from primary care

How the mandates and the widening of vaccination delivery have played out with families in practice, who is still being missed, and the steps needed to sustain and spread the gains.

INTERVENTIONS

Rukshana Kapasi

Barnardo’s

Equity: Discussing whether mandates narrow inequities or risk leaving the hardest-to-reach families further behind.

Kitty Mohan

Standing Committee of
European Doctors (CPME)

Resilience: Discussing how high, sustained coverage keeps a country safe from outbreaks and what makes that coverage slip.

Marta Lomazzi

World Federation of Public
Health Associations
(WFPHA)

European policy: Discussing what France’s experience means at the EU level: whether mandates belong in a shared toolkit or should stay a national choice.

Speaker to be announced

Confidence & trust: Discussing whether mandates can overcome barriers of trust and confidence or simply bypass them.

12:15 – 13:00

ACT 4 - Adult Immunization & Healthy AgeingA missing pillar of NCD prevention

Marco Del Riccio

University of Florence

Immunization as cardiovascular prevention

Presenting cardiovascular disease as a prevention priority across adult life, and immunization’s place within it; the evidence that vaccinating adults against influenza, COVID-19, RSV and pneumococcal disease helps prevent cardiovascular events, and why fragmented policies leave this protection under-used across Europe.

Nicola Veronese

Saint Camillus
International
University

Vaccination and the conditions of later life

Presenting the protection vaccination offers against infections linked to the conditions of later life, from dementia and neurocognitive decline to the musculoskeletal decline, frailty and loss of mobility that infections can accelerate, and what this means for healthy ageing and prevention policy.

INTERVENTIONS

Rukshana Kapasi

Barnardo’s

Equity: Discussing how overcoming socioeconomic barriers opens equitable access to vaccination and to adult prevention as a whole.

Kitty Mohan

Standing Committee of
European Doctors (CPME)

Health security: Discussing adult immunization as part of Europe’s preparedness, easing pressure on health systems in every respiratory season.

Marta Lomazzi

World Federation of Public
Health Associations
(WFPHA)

European policy: Discussing what a shared EU approach to adult immunization would take to become real: agreed recommendations, funding, and delivery.

Speaker to be announced

Confidence & trust: Discussing how placing vaccination within broader prevention policy helps build public confidence and trust.

13:00 – 13:30

Evidence to ActionFrom lessons learned to a European policy agenda

The final session turns the day’s lessons into a shared agenda for action. Drawing on what the four case studies revealed about reaching everyone, responding fast, sustaining confidence, and holding coverage over time, participants work toward a concise set of recommendations for European and national decision-makers.

The goal is not another statement of principle but a practical agenda: the design features that make immunization programs durable, the early signals that reveal the next protection gap before it becomes a crisis, and the concrete steps a credible EU strategy for life-course immunization would require, from aligned recommendations and funding to shared delivery and accountability, all anchored to goals already on the table, such as defeating meningitis by 2030.

DISCUSSION

Durability by design: what separates programs that last from those that fade once the first push is over?

Equity as the test: how do we make “reaching everyone” a measurable standard rather than an aspiration, and who is accountable for the gap?

Seeing the next gap: which early signals (coverage, surveillance, uptake by group) should trigger action before a gap becomes an outbreak?

A common European floor: where would aligned recommendations or common minimum standards add the most value, and where must national context lead?

MEETING 1

Lessons from Immunization Implementation in Europe

Immunization Implementation in Europe