TY - JOUR T1 - Vaccine safety: looking forward and back JF - BMJ Global Health JO - BMJ Global Health DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005743 VL - 6 IS - Suppl 2 SP - e005743 AU - Alexander Muir Walker AU - Walter A Orenstein Y1 - 2021/05/01 UR - http://gh.bmj.com/content/6/Suppl_2/e005743.abstract N2 - Vaccines are among the most cost-effective health interventions. Scientifically rigorous monitoring and evaluation of vaccine safety is critical in order to develop and modify recommendations for vaccine use and in maintaining public trust necessary for the use of vaccines.Even when governments and public health advocates are appropriate in their enthusiasm, vaccines sometimes lack advocates among caregivers or citizens. Outside of pandemics, vaccines do not engender a sense of urgency nor do they offer the satisfaction of seeing a cure. To many patients, the vaccine supporter’s focus on diminished future disease probabilities may seem overly abstract.In its own words, ‘The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) was established in 1999 to respond promptly, efficiently, and with scientific rigour to vaccine safety issues of potential global importance’. The need for an international body that is free of commercial interests or local politics and that can bring intelligible expertise to national and local decisions is as important today as it was 20 years ago.In December 2019, GACVS celebrated 20 years of service to the global health community. On the occasion of this anniversary, the Global Vaccine Safety Summit reviewed vaccine pharmacovigilance through two decades and reflected on the future of vaccine safety in multiple domains: novel vaccine products, methodological enhancements and adapting scientific communication efforts to evolving technologies.Some vaccine safety issues of the 20th century involved genuine and causal, through rare, … ER -