January 2025 Newsletter

Lu Chen, presented Science, Economics, and International Health: The Expanded Programme Immunization (EPI) in China at the Needham Research Institute at Cambridge University on 9 January.

This presentation examines the complex dynamics between economic activities, scientific progress, and international collaboration in public health, focusing on the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in China. Launched by the World Health Organization in 1974, the EPI aims to provide universal access to essential vaccines for six major preventable diseases: tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and measles, with the goal of improving global child health outcomes. Following China’s entry into the WHO in 1972, the EPI quickly became a key collaboration of the partnership between Beijing and Geneva. The EPI took place against a backdrop of changing global health financing influenced by the rise of neoliberal policies in the late 1970s, which overhauled scientific research, vaccine production, and international health partnerships. Simultaneously, the end of the 1970s marked China’s shift toward economic liberalization, which brought significant health sector reforms and the integration of private sector into a previously state-dominated system. Through China’s collaboration with the WHO, UNICEF, and the World Bank in the EPI, this presentation seeks to explore how conflicts arising from China’s adoption of market-oriented reforms have influenced scientific research and public health practices, critically assessing how these economic changes have impacted the accessibility, quality, and equity of immunization services. Furthermore, it examines emerging trends in international collaboration, highlighting China’s growing influence within the WHO and other global health bodies and its role in shaping new collaborative frameworks that diverge from Western-centric models to embrace diverse political, economic and cultural perspectives.