I’m currently in London with dh for a conference/va-cay combo. We arrived yesterday to the start of a Summer of Discontent…public transport strikes with more to come (including Heathrow ground staff) Along with that is the appearance of polio virus in wastewater.
On a news item last night, it seems this discovery was made in an unspecified area in NW London and the emphasis was wastewater only and, as yet no reported cases. Apparently this is “vaccine derived” virus and the supposition is that the source is an overseas visitor from an area where the oral polio vaccine is still used. Again, the emphasis was that this is only likely to be a problem for the unvaccinated but the stunner for me was that, currently in the UK, 1 in 5 under 5 year olds are unvaccinated!!
On first blush, this might look like a non issue in communities where immunization rates are high and I would never have imagined that polio vaccination would be a victim of the anti vaxxers’ influence. Manifestly, that’s a mistaken notion.
When I saw this reported on the BBC, they had not yet determined the DNA footprint of the virus detected.
The report surprised me that the UK only uses the Salk injection vax, as the Sabin oral vax has been the thing in the US for decades. The issue with the Sabin vax has always been that it uses a “weakened” live virus, and a few people develop polio from it. Several years ago, my doc decided I was due for a bunch of vaccines, so his assistant came in with two or three syringes, and a little plastic capsule of polio vax that she squirted into my mouth.
…as the Sabin oral vax has been the thing in the US for decades
It hasn’t been licensed for use since 2000, apparently. When I was checking last night to see which countries did still use the oral vaccine, the US wasn’t one of them. I knew this before I checked because of my granddaughter’s polio vaccines so I did a Google.
It hasn’t been licensed for use since 2000, apparently.
I had to change docs in 2000, because change of employment brought change of insurance, so had to find a doc that was “in network” for the new coverage.
When I retired at the end of 2011, I bought my own insurance, as I was years away of qualifying for Medicare. That change of insurance, brought another change of doc to one that was “in network”.
I remember who I got that oral vax from, and it was the guy I was seeing between 2000 and 2011, and, I suspect that day of the vax updates came after I had been seeing him for several years, because I remember the conversation that led up to the jab session.
I would never have imagined that polio vaccination would be a victim of the anti vaxxers’ influence.
How many Whole Foods stores are in the neighborhood? Read an article years ago that Whole Foods and vaccine reluctance had a strong correlation. And not over COVID but all the traditional childhood vaccines.
People are stupid.
JLC - who was named after an uncle that died in childhood from a now preventable disease.