SHOTWAVE 2022

It is truly an honor to announce that this is the FIFTH annual SHOTWAVE!

I never imagined it would continue this long; or become so important. But we are witnessing a historic rise in the misinformation, science denial and anti-vax efforts.

We have also witnessed firsthand the importance of vaccinations--for EVERYONE.

In 2019, the WHO estimated 1.5MIL deaths could be avoided if global vaccination coverage improved. COVID-19 has made this more urgent. UNICEF is the largest vaccine supplier in the world. They account for nearly half of all the vaccinations received by children every year.

YOU can help vaccinate the world.

So this FIFTH annual year-long edition of SHOTWAVE: Science Helping OuT World Awareness, Vaccination & Education is a call-to-action to ALL of us: to #StandUpForScience, speak out against misinformation, and to help vaccination efforts worldwide. We are all in this fight together.

It’s pretty simple:

1. Go get ANY vaccine! And get your children vaccinated!

2. Take a picture (your face is optional and preferably smiling!) of your cool bandaids

3. Post it in response to this challenge to my Twitter account (@DrsMeena) OR (new this year--drum roll, please) INSTAGRAM (@drs_meena). Please feel free to add #ridetheshotwave (and #VaccinesWork, #StandUpForScience, #VaccinesCauseAdults or another appropriate hashtag).

4. I will donate $0.30* to UNICEF for each band-aid/vaccine (in the event of vaccine-count uncertainty, I round up) to help children around the world get their vaccines—creating a “shot wave” across the globe.

5. I will post articles often about immunizations, vaccines, science, helping kids, etc to raise awareness and education because (as my son says) SCIENCE ROCKS! -- please share these widely.

That’s it. Hopefully pretty simple!

Please—spread this far and wide. Let’s take on the anti-vax movement head-on; & help both our local and global communities with VACCINES.

And finally: You can feel free to donate directly if you like (my pocketbook can use the help!). :) #RideTheShotwave

* my guesstimate of what the average vaccine costs based on UNICEF’s webpage. Please learn more about what UNICEF does here: https://www.unicef.org/child-health-and-survival