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2022 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 26
Designating October 24, in 2022 and in each succeeding year, as World Polio Day in Virginia.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 8, 2022
Agreed to by the Senate, March 1, 2022

 

WHEREAS, World Polio Day is held throughout the world on October 24 in celebration of the birth of Jonas Salk, the American researcher who developed the first polio vaccine in 1955; and

WHEREAS, Rotary International and its global partners launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) more than three decades ago, at a time when polio paralyzed 1,000 children every day; and

WHEREAS, since the launch of the GPEI in 1988, more than 17.4 million people, including many in the developing world, have been immunized against polio; and

WHEREAS, more than 200,000 paralytic cases of polio are now prevented every year through this initiative, which includes Rotary International Foundation, the World Health Organization, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to immunize the children of the world against polio; and

WHEREAS, the worldwide staffing and equipment infrastructure that has been established by Rotary International and its partners to detect and survey the polio virus as well as to deliver and administer the polio vaccine has been remarkably successful; and

WHEREAS, as of October, there were only two confirmed cases of polio in 2021, with one case reported in Afghanistan and another in Pakistan; and

WHEREAS, health authorities in the United States and around the world have also used Rotary International’s polio eradication programs as a model to carry out similar functions during the COVID-19 pandemic; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly designate October 24, in 2022 and in each succeeding year, as World Polio Day in Virginia; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates transmit a copy of this resolution to Rotary International District 7610 so that members of Rotary Clubs throughout the Commonwealth may be apprised of the sense of the General Assembly of Virginia in this matter; and, be it

RESOLVED FINALLY, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates post the designation of this day on the General Assembly's website.