This article was originally published by ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1426062
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1426062
Fauci!
Frist!
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Gee I wonder who deserves credit for the polio resurgence?
I got a feeling RFK Jr should be #1 on that list…
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About a month ago, British health authorities announced they’d found evidence suggesting local spread of polio in London.
It was a jolt, to be sure. The country was declared polio-free in 2003.
Polio’s first appearance in almost a decade in the U.S., confirmed late last week by health officials in New York, would play out quite differently.
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I was born in the 1970’s and NEVER EVER did I expect polio to be back in the US.
This is ridiculous, but not unexpected, given the current state of vaccine misinformation.
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The god-botherers in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Orthodox Jewish communities…Not to mention a likely significant portion of the Xtians here who recently decided the Covid vaccines were the devil’s work. What the hell is wrong with these people?? They really need to re-examine some of their quaint notions.
I’m old enough to remember the polio epidemic(s) in the US, indeed, an uncle, at age 35, died from it in 1953. It was not a reassuring period to be a kid. These nitwits need to get their heads out of their various “holy texts”.
@josephebacon Kennedy certainly deserves a step on the podium of the Tour des Assholes; not sure if he gets the top one. We’ve seen how a certain failed politician can use his elbows in a crowd…
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I caught a mild case of polio from my sister in 1954 when I was 5 years old. She had a much more serious case so my parents were rightly spending their time and care with her. My case was missed and not diagnosed until I was 13. I got my polio and smallpox vaccinations the next year, 1955.
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I have seen that look in cats who have just inhaled a dose of catnip.
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Not sure if a polio epidemic was the goal of the anti-vax movement but it seems that could happen among the unvaccinated and babies too young to be vaccinated. Pertussis and measles outbreaks occur on a near annual basis and now it seems as if polio may make a resurgence. It is stupid just stupid.
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As I said I got my polio vaccination as a little kid in 1955. There’s no reason not to begin a push to vaccinate against this nasty disease. It’s one shot that usually offers lifetime protection… usually being the operative word.
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The good news is we no longer have to concern ourselves with the incessant stream of bullshit from the anti-vaxx morons. The viruses they say don’t exist will take care of them for us. Can’t happen soon enough.
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From the right’s perspective, this is certainly a Democrat plot caused by gay marriage and abortion, paid for by George Soros and led by Obama and Hillary.
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(Was on my way to Walmart)
we (the developed/industrialized world) criticize/ borderline patronize the developing world for these types of outbreaks, but here’s America playing with a pair of viral scissors.
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For decades, the cost of doing wastewater surveillance for diseases like polio pretty clearly outweighed the benefit.
Thankfully, it looks like the ones who have opposed it are being pushed out of the CDC:
Some U.S. public health officials have been skeptical of the value of such testing here.
“I’ve always been unenthusiastic about doing it for polio in the U.S. and a big supporter of doing it elsewhere, where there are deficiencies in other surveillance systems,” said Mark Pallansch, who retired in 2021 after spending much of his career working on polio eradication efforts for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This reeks of pre-pandemic thinking where the US is the greatest, bestest country prepared for a pandemic. We learned the hard way that instead we worse prepared than many other countries, including in our (still failing) surveillance system.
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As someone who can actually remember when the vaccine first became available and what a miracle it was, and then subsequently worked in healthcare most of my life, my sadness over the unnecessary illness and death we have been seeing since Dr. Wakefield made his false claims about autism is deep. I will go to my grave confounded and confused by the ignorance that has taken our country by storm.
Is there anything more tragic than children dying unnecessarily? It is so sad I can’t even muster anger anymore.
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I saw polio results in young kids in Afghanistan in 1970. It is endemic there still and could be eliminated if the Islamist government cared. Too many there are against any sort of “western medicine”.
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“You’re already chasing your tail if you’re going to wait for a case to show up,”
So let’s do that, and wait for cases to turn up! – The United States
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Yep, this is not a case of the rightwing nutballs causing the whole thing. They are certainly causing a ton of trouble with Covid and beyond. But there are many left-leaning folks who have decided vaccines are unnatural and corporate and to be eschewed. It’s saddening, and maddening.
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The anti-vax movement strikes again?
My mother was an RN. She knew the power of polio first hand. When the vaccines came out we got both the shot and the sugar cube (Salk and Sabin) along with every other kid I knew, all of whom had parents who loved them. My mom made sure my brothers and I were close the front of the line.
Being an anti-vaxer doesn’t mean you are right or left. It means you are a gullible fool. The vaccines work. When my generation got the vaccine polio virtually ended . Iron lungs became a thing of the past.
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The anti-vax movement is responsible for at least half, if not more, of the illnesses that are seeing resurgence. There was a measles outbreak among the Somali population in the Twin Cities, a few years back. Some idiot had gotten the bug in the community’s ear that the vaccine was lethal, so they didn’t take it.
In Minnesota’s worst measles outbreak, a battle of beliefs over vaccines - ABC News (go.com)
And yet people still listen to this nonsense, from people who are no more qualified as medical practitioners than they are the Queen of England.
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