Vaccines do more than protect individuals. They place us in community with each other and link us across generations. Protection that begins in early childhood can carry forward into adulthood, extending to the health and stability of families and entire societies. That continuity is easy to overlook because, when vaccines work, they often work unseen. Vaccination looks like fewer hospital visits. Like full classrooms. Like daily life that isn’t governed by the fear of disease. This protection endures because each generation chooses it, again and again.

At the International Vaccine Institute, this work to sustain protection across generations is both our mission as an international organization and something more personal. We are scientists, researchers, and advocates, working in laboratories and in communities to make safe, effective, and affordable vaccines available. And we are also parents, siblings, friends, and neighbors. The impact of vaccines is something we feel, witness, and work to extend every day.

To celebrate World Immunization Week, a global campaign highlighting the value of vaccination each year, we asked our colleagues to reflect on this year’s theme, “For every generation, vaccines work.” What does it mean for vaccines to work across generations?

For Thaint Thaint Thwe, a field operations researcher, getting vaccinated has marked different stages of her life, leaving traces in her memory and on her arm: “My earliest memory of vaccination is receiving the oral polio vaccine as a toddler during a mass polio campaign at a local ward community office in Yangon [in Myanmar]. I still remember how unexpectedly bitter it tasted.”

She continues, “Growing up, the BCG [vaccine] scar on my left arm became something everyone recognized and talked about, reflecting how the burden of tuberculosis shaped our generation. More recently, when I received my COVID-19 vaccine as an adult, it brought me back to those childhood moments and reminded me the importance of ensuring equitable access to vaccines across all countries and all generations.”

Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine is also the most recent experience of vaccination for Global Communications and Advocacy Manager Aerie Em’s brother, KC, who recalls the fear of the pandemic, “of getting sick, or worse, passing it to people I loved who were still hesitant to get the shot.” He received a first dose of the vaccine in early 2021, and reflects, “I was acutely aware of how few people in the world had access to it at that point, which made it feel like a privilege or luxury. I thanked my doctor and felt hope, something that had been absent for a year.”

Haydee Pereyda Martinez, global affairs and protocol officer, remembers how, in her hometown of Mexico City, vaccination did not just happen in clinics. She shares a photo of her sister Erika getting a vaccine against influenza at her office. For them, vaccination is an event woven into everyday life.

Growing up, Thamara Liz Gabuardi, business development associate, was comforted by Zé Gotinha, a character representing the oral polio vaccine known and loved by children across Brazil. “He was not just a mascot, but a comforting presence who made children feel safe and encouraged us to talk to our parents about staying up to date with our vaccines. Zé Gotinha was a friend. Zé Gotinha made us feel safe in many different ways. At the time, I did not fully understand it, but those experiences were part of a collective effort to protect us from polio, a disease that once caused fear and lifelong paralysis for so many.”

These early encounters leave an imprint. They shape how we understand health—not just as something individual, but something shared. Program Director Tharinee Sakhakorn hopes to pass on this imprint to her child, sharing a photo of her son Rhett holding up his immunization book: “On World Immunization Week, I’m reminded why I choose to vaccinate my children according to the recommended immunization program. Every shot is a step toward protecting not only their health, but also everyone around them. Prevention starts early, and we’re celebrating every milestone along the way.”

Junhee Lee, business development manager, shares a similar sentiment: “The BCG vaccination of my first child was more than a routine procedure; it reflected an earnest hope for Yeahn to grow up healthy, as a meaningful part of the global public health community. I hope that the aspirations of parents worldwide for their children’s wellbeing continue to be realized every day through universal access to life-saving vaccines.”

In Sweden, that hope is taking new shape for the next generation. Christine Demsteader, communications manager, reflects on her son being among the first cohorts of boys offered the HPV vaccine after the national program became gender-inclusive in 2020: “My son Jack is uniquely ‘Generation HPV’ in Sweden. The national program became gender neutral in 2020 and began vaccinating boys in the fifth school year, around age 11. While HPV is often linked with cervical cancer in women, the vaccine also protects boys against HPV-related cancers and helps reduce transmission, lowering HPV-related disease overall.”

These stories span places and ages. But they all return to the same idea: vaccines work because people trust them, choose them, and pass them down. World Immunization Week is a moment to recognize that continuity—not only the scientific innovation behind vaccines, but the everyday decisions that sustain their impact. From childhood memories to the hopes of parents, from community campaigns to increasingly inclusive policy, vaccination connects us in ways that are both deeply personal and widely shared.

For every generation, vaccines work. And for every generation, the work continues.