Women Are the Key to Vaccinating the World

Late last year, in Karachi’s Metroville Colony, Sadia Rizwan went door-to-door administering a two-drop oral polio vaccine to children. She visited dozens of homes each day, calling on more than 350 households in just ten days. The COVID-19 pandemic was raging across Pakistan, and Rizwan was acutely aware of the risks she was taking to carry out a polio vaccination campaign—risks that were deepened by the unwillingness of some families she visited to wear masks or maintain social distance. But as a longtime resident of Metroville, she also knew firsthand the havoc polio wreaks when left unchecked.

Rizwan is