Are most cases of polio caused by polio vaccine?
up vote
28
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According to this National Public Radio article:
For the first time, the number of children paralyzed by mutant strains of the polio vaccine are greater than the number of children paralyzed by polio itself.
So far in 2017, there have been only six cases of "wild" polio reported anywhere in the world. By "wild," public health officials mean the disease caused by polio virus found naturally in the environment. By contrast, there have been 21 cases of vaccine-derived polio this year.
Are the claims in this article accurate?
medical-science vaccines
asked 23 hours ago
Roger
896312
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up vote
28
down vote
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According to this National Public Radio article:
For the first time, the number of children paralyzed by mutant strains of the polio vaccine are greater than the number of children paralyzed by polio itself.
So far in 2017, there have been only six cases of "wild" polio reported anywhere in the world. By "wild," public health officials mean the disease caused by polio virus found naturally in the environment. By contrast, there have been 21 cases of vaccine-derived polio this year.
Are the claims in this article accurate?
medical-science vaccines
asked 23 hours ago
Roger
896312
35
This is not that surprising considering polio is very close to being eradicated.
– antlersoft
22 hours ago
13
This is one reason why they stopped using the live virus vaccine in the US about 30 years ago -- the risk (in the US) of getting the illness from the live vaccine exceeded the risk of getting it "in the wild". But the live virus continued to be used in other (mostly 3rd world) countries because it's more effective and because it actually results in a significant number of "vaccinations" via "contagion". The folks running things here have been pretty good at analyzing the numbers and picking the most effective options.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
6
And, of course, it needs to be noted that a killed virus vaccine has an essentially zero chance of causing the disease. (I say "essentially" because in any human endeavor there's always a chance of human error, such as failing to properly "kill" the virus in the vaccine.)
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
13
And finally, it's good to hear that the virus is finally being eradicated. It took a lot longer than it should have, due to war, politics, and religious fanaticism. As someone who has suffered most of my life from a relatively mild case of polio when I was 2, I would not wish this disease on anyone.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
19
Tangent: There were >350,000 cases of polio infection in 1988. 1 As tragic as it is that 21 people got a disease from a vaccine meant to prevent it, that's still an incredible success story for the vaccine. 27 total worldwide cases, versus hundreds of thousands. If you'll pardon my French, sacredieu.
– Nic Hartley
19 hours ago
|
show 1 more comment
up vote
28
down vote
favorite
up vote
28
down vote
favorite
According to this National Public Radio article:
For the first time, the number of children paralyzed by mutant strains of the polio vaccine are greater than the number of children paralyzed by polio itself.
So far in 2017, there have been only six cases of "wild" polio reported anywhere in the world. By "wild," public health officials mean the disease caused by polio virus found naturally in the environment. By contrast, there have been 21 cases of vaccine-derived polio this year.
Are the claims in this article accurate?
medical-science vaccines
asked 23 hours ago
Roger
896312
According to this National Public Radio article:
For the first time, the number of children paralyzed by mutant strains of the polio vaccine are greater than the number of children paralyzed by polio itself.
So far in 2017, there have been only six cases of "wild" polio reported anywhere in the world. By "wild," public health officials mean the disease caused by polio virus found naturally in the environment. By contrast, there have been 21 cases of vaccine-derived polio this year.
Are the claims in this article accurate?
medical-science vaccines
medical-science vaccines
asked 23 hours ago
Roger
896312
asked 23 hours ago
Roger
896312
asked 23 hours ago
Roger
896312
asked 23 hours ago
Roger
896312
asked 23 hours ago
Roger
896312
896312
35
This is not that surprising considering polio is very close to being eradicated.
– antlersoft
22 hours ago
13
This is one reason why they stopped using the live virus vaccine in the US about 30 years ago -- the risk (in the US) of getting the illness from the live vaccine exceeded the risk of getting it "in the wild". But the live virus continued to be used in other (mostly 3rd world) countries because it's more effective and because it actually results in a significant number of "vaccinations" via "contagion". The folks running things here have been pretty good at analyzing the numbers and picking the most effective options.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
6
And, of course, it needs to be noted that a killed virus vaccine has an essentially zero chance of causing the disease. (I say "essentially" because in any human endeavor there's always a chance of human error, such as failing to properly "kill" the virus in the vaccine.)
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
13
And finally, it's good to hear that the virus is finally being eradicated. It took a lot longer than it should have, due to war, politics, and religious fanaticism. As someone who has suffered most of my life from a relatively mild case of polio when I was 2, I would not wish this disease on anyone.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
19
Tangent: There were >350,000 cases of polio infection in 1988. 1 As tragic as it is that 21 people got a disease from a vaccine meant to prevent it, that's still an incredible success story for the vaccine. 27 total worldwide cases, versus hundreds of thousands. If you'll pardon my French, sacredieu.
– Nic Hartley
19 hours ago
|
show 1 more comment
35
This is not that surprising considering polio is very close to being eradicated.
– antlersoft
22 hours ago
13
This is one reason why they stopped using the live virus vaccine in the US about 30 years ago -- the risk (in the US) of getting the illness from the live vaccine exceeded the risk of getting it "in the wild". But the live virus continued to be used in other (mostly 3rd world) countries because it's more effective and because it actually results in a significant number of "vaccinations" via "contagion". The folks running things here have been pretty good at analyzing the numbers and picking the most effective options.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
6
And, of course, it needs to be noted that a killed virus vaccine has an essentially zero chance of causing the disease. (I say "essentially" because in any human endeavor there's always a chance of human error, such as failing to properly "kill" the virus in the vaccine.)
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
13
And finally, it's good to hear that the virus is finally being eradicated. It took a lot longer than it should have, due to war, politics, and religious fanaticism. As someone who has suffered most of my life from a relatively mild case of polio when I was 2, I would not wish this disease on anyone.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
19
Tangent: There were >350,000 cases of polio infection in 1988. 1 As tragic as it is that 21 people got a disease from a vaccine meant to prevent it, that's still an incredible success story for the vaccine. 27 total worldwide cases, versus hundreds of thousands. If you'll pardon my French, sacredieu.
– Nic Hartley
19 hours ago
35
35
This is not that surprising considering polio is very close to being eradicated.
– antlersoft
22 hours ago
This is not that surprising considering polio is very close to being eradicated.
– antlersoft
22 hours ago
13
13
This is one reason why they stopped using the live virus vaccine in the US about 30 years ago -- the risk (in the US) of getting the illness from the live vaccine exceeded the risk of getting it "in the wild". But the live virus continued to be used in other (mostly 3rd world) countries because it's more effective and because it actually results in a significant number of "vaccinations" via "contagion". The folks running things here have been pretty good at analyzing the numbers and picking the most effective options.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
This is one reason why they stopped using the live virus vaccine in the US about 30 years ago -- the risk (in the US) of getting the illness from the live vaccine exceeded the risk of getting it "in the wild". But the live virus continued to be used in other (mostly 3rd world) countries because it's more effective and because it actually results in a significant number of "vaccinations" via "contagion". The folks running things here have been pretty good at analyzing the numbers and picking the most effective options.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
6
6
And, of course, it needs to be noted that a killed virus vaccine has an essentially zero chance of causing the disease. (I say "essentially" because in any human endeavor there's always a chance of human error, such as failing to properly "kill" the virus in the vaccine.)
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
And, of course, it needs to be noted that a killed virus vaccine has an essentially zero chance of causing the disease. (I say "essentially" because in any human endeavor there's always a chance of human error, such as failing to properly "kill" the virus in the vaccine.)
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
13
13
And finally, it's good to hear that the virus is finally being eradicated. It took a lot longer than it should have, due to war, politics, and religious fanaticism. As someone who has suffered most of my life from a relatively mild case of polio when I was 2, I would not wish this disease on anyone.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
And finally, it's good to hear that the virus is finally being eradicated. It took a lot longer than it should have, due to war, politics, and religious fanaticism. As someone who has suffered most of my life from a relatively mild case of polio when I was 2, I would not wish this disease on anyone.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
19
19
Tangent: There were >350,000 cases of polio infection in 1988. 1 As tragic as it is that 21 people got a disease from a vaccine meant to prevent it, that's still an incredible success story for the vaccine. 27 total worldwide cases, versus hundreds of thousands. If you'll pardon my French, sacredieu.
– Nic Hartley
19 hours ago
Tangent: There were >350,000 cases of polio infection in 1988. 1 As tragic as it is that 21 people got a disease from a vaccine meant to prevent it, that's still an incredible success story for the vaccine. 27 total worldwide cases, versus hundreds of thousands. If you'll pardon my French, sacredieu.
– Nic Hartley
19 hours ago
|
show 1 more comment
1 Answer
1
active
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up vote
52
down vote
Numbers not exact, ratio plausible. This is a success story.
The WHO provides a queryable database on AFP / polio. I am a bit unclear on the exact meaning of the headers, so I'll list the 2017 global totals for all columns:
- AFP cases: 104090
- Non polio AFP Rate: 5.46
- % Adequate stool collection: 89
- Pending: 118
- Wild polivirus cases: 22
- cVDPV cases: 96
- Compatibles: 259
cVDPV stands for circulating vaccine-derived polivirus.
So 96 cVDPV cases to 22 wild cases with 118 "pending" at least makes the claim's 21 to 6 cases plausible (assuming "at the point of writing").
This graph visualizes the progress of polio erradication:
(Tobus, Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Note that cVDPV does not mean that the vaccinated person becomes ill. It means that viruses shedded by a freshly vaccinated person start infecting other, unvaccinated people. A fully vaccinated population would be immune from both types of polio.
Quoted from the WHO page, emphasis mine:
It takes a long time for a cVDPV to occur. Generally, the strain will have been allowed to circulate in an un- or under-immunized population for a period of at least 12 months. Circulating VDPVs occur when routine or supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) are poorly conducted and a population is left susceptible to poliovirus, whether from vaccine-derived or wild poliovirus. Hence, the problem is not with the vaccine itself, but low vaccination coverage. If a population is fully immunized, they will be protected against both vaccine-derived and wild polioviruses.
Since 2000, more than 10 billion doses of OPV have been administered to nearly 3 billion children worldwide. As a result, more than 13 million cases of polio have been prevented, and the disease has been reduced by more than 99%. During that time, 24 cVDPV outbreaks occurred in 21 countries, resulting in fewer than 760 VDPV cases.
Actually they felt they could remove the most problematic strain of the virus from the vaccination:
Until 2015, over 90% of cVDPV cases were due to the type 2 component in OPV. With the transmission of wild poliovirus type 2 already successfully interrupted since 1999, in April 2016 a switch was implemented from trivalent OPV to bivalent OPV in routine immunization programmes. The removal of the type 2 component of OPV is associated with significant public health benefits, including a reduction of the risk of cases of cVDPV2.
So allowing for the latency mentioned for cVDPV to actually occur, vaccine-derived polio cases can be expected to go down as well.
answered 22 hours ago
DevSolar
8,68433541
3
There's maybe a mismatch here where the quote in the question says 'paralysed by polio' but the data is more 'caught polio', which presumably doesn't have a 100% rate of paralysing people. I would perhaps hope that the live vaccine is with a strain that is unlikely to cause paralysis, so that rate would be lower even if it caused more infections, but I don't know anywhere enough about polio to know if that's possible.
– mbrig
15 hours ago
7
@mbrig [Paralysis] occurs in less than 1% of all infections, so nope, not even close to 100%.
– Nic Hartley
15 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
52
down vote
Numbers not exact, ratio plausible. This is a success story.
The WHO provides a queryable database on AFP / polio. I am a bit unclear on the exact meaning of the headers, so I'll list the 2017 global totals for all columns:
- AFP cases: 104090
- Non polio AFP Rate: 5.46
- % Adequate stool collection: 89
- Pending: 118
- Wild polivirus cases: 22
- cVDPV cases: 96
- Compatibles: 259
cVDPV stands for circulating vaccine-derived polivirus.
So 96 cVDPV cases to 22 wild cases with 118 "pending" at least makes the claim's 21 to 6 cases plausible (assuming "at the point of writing").
This graph visualizes the progress of polio erradication:
(Tobus, Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Note that cVDPV does not mean that the vaccinated person becomes ill. It means that viruses shedded by a freshly vaccinated person start infecting other, unvaccinated people. A fully vaccinated population would be immune from both types of polio.
Quoted from the WHO page, emphasis mine:
It takes a long time for a cVDPV to occur. Generally, the strain will have been allowed to circulate in an un- or under-immunized population for a period of at least 12 months. Circulating VDPVs occur when routine or supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) are poorly conducted and a population is left susceptible to poliovirus, whether from vaccine-derived or wild poliovirus. Hence, the problem is not with the vaccine itself, but low vaccination coverage. If a population is fully immunized, they will be protected against both vaccine-derived and wild polioviruses.
Since 2000, more than 10 billion doses of OPV have been administered to nearly 3 billion children worldwide. As a result, more than 13 million cases of polio have been prevented, and the disease has been reduced by more than 99%. During that time, 24 cVDPV outbreaks occurred in 21 countries, resulting in fewer than 760 VDPV cases.
Actually they felt they could remove the most problematic strain of the virus from the vaccination:
Until 2015, over 90% of cVDPV cases were due to the type 2 component in OPV. With the transmission of wild poliovirus type 2 already successfully interrupted since 1999, in April 2016 a switch was implemented from trivalent OPV to bivalent OPV in routine immunization programmes. The removal of the type 2 component of OPV is associated with significant public health benefits, including a reduction of the risk of cases of cVDPV2.
So allowing for the latency mentioned for cVDPV to actually occur, vaccine-derived polio cases can be expected to go down as well.
answered 22 hours ago
DevSolar
8,68433541
3
There's maybe a mismatch here where the quote in the question says 'paralysed by polio' but the data is more 'caught polio', which presumably doesn't have a 100% rate of paralysing people. I would perhaps hope that the live vaccine is with a strain that is unlikely to cause paralysis, so that rate would be lower even if it caused more infections, but I don't know anywhere enough about polio to know if that's possible.
– mbrig
15 hours ago
7
@mbrig [Paralysis] occurs in less than 1% of all infections, so nope, not even close to 100%.
– Nic Hartley
15 hours ago
add a comment |
up vote
52
down vote
Numbers not exact, ratio plausible. This is a success story.
The WHO provides a queryable database on AFP / polio. I am a bit unclear on the exact meaning of the headers, so I'll list the 2017 global totals for all columns:
- AFP cases: 104090
- Non polio AFP Rate: 5.46
- % Adequate stool collection: 89
- Pending: 118
- Wild polivirus cases: 22
- cVDPV cases: 96
- Compatibles: 259
cVDPV stands for circulating vaccine-derived polivirus.
So 96 cVDPV cases to 22 wild cases with 118 "pending" at least makes the claim's 21 to 6 cases plausible (assuming "at the point of writing").
This graph visualizes the progress of polio erradication:
(Tobus, Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Note that cVDPV does not mean that the vaccinated person becomes ill. It means that viruses shedded by a freshly vaccinated person start infecting other, unvaccinated people. A fully vaccinated population would be immune from both types of polio.
Quoted from the WHO page, emphasis mine:
It takes a long time for a cVDPV to occur. Generally, the strain will have been allowed to circulate in an un- or under-immunized population for a period of at least 12 months. Circulating VDPVs occur when routine or supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) are poorly conducted and a population is left susceptible to poliovirus, whether from vaccine-derived or wild poliovirus. Hence, the problem is not with the vaccine itself, but low vaccination coverage. If a population is fully immunized, they will be protected against both vaccine-derived and wild polioviruses.
Since 2000, more than 10 billion doses of OPV have been administered to nearly 3 billion children worldwide. As a result, more than 13 million cases of polio have been prevented, and the disease has been reduced by more than 99%. During that time, 24 cVDPV outbreaks occurred in 21 countries, resulting in fewer than 760 VDPV cases.
Actually they felt they could remove the most problematic strain of the virus from the vaccination:
Until 2015, over 90% of cVDPV cases were due to the type 2 component in OPV. With the transmission of wild poliovirus type 2 already successfully interrupted since 1999, in April 2016 a switch was implemented from trivalent OPV to bivalent OPV in routine immunization programmes. The removal of the type 2 component of OPV is associated with significant public health benefits, including a reduction of the risk of cases of cVDPV2.
So allowing for the latency mentioned for cVDPV to actually occur, vaccine-derived polio cases can be expected to go down as well.
answered 22 hours ago
DevSolar
8,68433541
3
There's maybe a mismatch here where the quote in the question says 'paralysed by polio' but the data is more 'caught polio', which presumably doesn't have a 100% rate of paralysing people. I would perhaps hope that the live vaccine is with a strain that is unlikely to cause paralysis, so that rate would be lower even if it caused more infections, but I don't know anywhere enough about polio to know if that's possible.
– mbrig
15 hours ago
7
@mbrig [Paralysis] occurs in less than 1% of all infections, so nope, not even close to 100%.
– Nic Hartley
15 hours ago
add a comment |
up vote
52
down vote
up vote
52
down vote
Numbers not exact, ratio plausible. This is a success story.
The WHO provides a queryable database on AFP / polio. I am a bit unclear on the exact meaning of the headers, so I'll list the 2017 global totals for all columns:
- AFP cases: 104090
- Non polio AFP Rate: 5.46
- % Adequate stool collection: 89
- Pending: 118
- Wild polivirus cases: 22
- cVDPV cases: 96
- Compatibles: 259
cVDPV stands for circulating vaccine-derived polivirus.
So 96 cVDPV cases to 22 wild cases with 118 "pending" at least makes the claim's 21 to 6 cases plausible (assuming "at the point of writing").
This graph visualizes the progress of polio erradication:
(Tobus, Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Note that cVDPV does not mean that the vaccinated person becomes ill. It means that viruses shedded by a freshly vaccinated person start infecting other, unvaccinated people. A fully vaccinated population would be immune from both types of polio.
Quoted from the WHO page, emphasis mine:
It takes a long time for a cVDPV to occur. Generally, the strain will have been allowed to circulate in an un- or under-immunized population for a period of at least 12 months. Circulating VDPVs occur when routine or supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) are poorly conducted and a population is left susceptible to poliovirus, whether from vaccine-derived or wild poliovirus. Hence, the problem is not with the vaccine itself, but low vaccination coverage. If a population is fully immunized, they will be protected against both vaccine-derived and wild polioviruses.
Since 2000, more than 10 billion doses of OPV have been administered to nearly 3 billion children worldwide. As a result, more than 13 million cases of polio have been prevented, and the disease has been reduced by more than 99%. During that time, 24 cVDPV outbreaks occurred in 21 countries, resulting in fewer than 760 VDPV cases.
Actually they felt they could remove the most problematic strain of the virus from the vaccination:
Until 2015, over 90% of cVDPV cases were due to the type 2 component in OPV. With the transmission of wild poliovirus type 2 already successfully interrupted since 1999, in April 2016 a switch was implemented from trivalent OPV to bivalent OPV in routine immunization programmes. The removal of the type 2 component of OPV is associated with significant public health benefits, including a reduction of the risk of cases of cVDPV2.
So allowing for the latency mentioned for cVDPV to actually occur, vaccine-derived polio cases can be expected to go down as well.
answered 22 hours ago
DevSolar
8,68433541
Numbers not exact, ratio plausible. This is a success story.
The WHO provides a queryable database on AFP / polio. I am a bit unclear on the exact meaning of the headers, so I'll list the 2017 global totals for all columns:
- AFP cases: 104090
- Non polio AFP Rate: 5.46
- % Adequate stool collection: 89
- Pending: 118
- Wild polivirus cases: 22
- cVDPV cases: 96
- Compatibles: 259
cVDPV stands for circulating vaccine-derived polivirus.
So 96 cVDPV cases to 22 wild cases with 118 "pending" at least makes the claim's 21 to 6 cases plausible (assuming "at the point of writing").
This graph visualizes the progress of polio erradication:
(Tobus, Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Note that cVDPV does not mean that the vaccinated person becomes ill. It means that viruses shedded by a freshly vaccinated person start infecting other, unvaccinated people. A fully vaccinated population would be immune from both types of polio.
Quoted from the WHO page, emphasis mine:
It takes a long time for a cVDPV to occur. Generally, the strain will have been allowed to circulate in an un- or under-immunized population for a period of at least 12 months. Circulating VDPVs occur when routine or supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) are poorly conducted and a population is left susceptible to poliovirus, whether from vaccine-derived or wild poliovirus. Hence, the problem is not with the vaccine itself, but low vaccination coverage. If a population is fully immunized, they will be protected against both vaccine-derived and wild polioviruses.
Since 2000, more than 10 billion doses of OPV have been administered to nearly 3 billion children worldwide. As a result, more than 13 million cases of polio have been prevented, and the disease has been reduced by more than 99%. During that time, 24 cVDPV outbreaks occurred in 21 countries, resulting in fewer than 760 VDPV cases.
Actually they felt they could remove the most problematic strain of the virus from the vaccination:
Until 2015, over 90% of cVDPV cases were due to the type 2 component in OPV. With the transmission of wild poliovirus type 2 already successfully interrupted since 1999, in April 2016 a switch was implemented from trivalent OPV to bivalent OPV in routine immunization programmes. The removal of the type 2 component of OPV is associated with significant public health benefits, including a reduction of the risk of cases of cVDPV2.
So allowing for the latency mentioned for cVDPV to actually occur, vaccine-derived polio cases can be expected to go down as well.
answered 22 hours ago
DevSolar
8,68433541
edited 22 hours ago
answered 22 hours ago
DevSolar
8,68433541
answered 22 hours ago
DevSolar
8,68433541
answered 22 hours ago
DevSolar
8,68433541
8,68433541
3
There's maybe a mismatch here where the quote in the question says 'paralysed by polio' but the data is more 'caught polio', which presumably doesn't have a 100% rate of paralysing people. I would perhaps hope that the live vaccine is with a strain that is unlikely to cause paralysis, so that rate would be lower even if it caused more infections, but I don't know anywhere enough about polio to know if that's possible.
– mbrig
15 hours ago
7
@mbrig [Paralysis] occurs in less than 1% of all infections, so nope, not even close to 100%.
– Nic Hartley
15 hours ago
add a comment |
3
There's maybe a mismatch here where the quote in the question says 'paralysed by polio' but the data is more 'caught polio', which presumably doesn't have a 100% rate of paralysing people. I would perhaps hope that the live vaccine is with a strain that is unlikely to cause paralysis, so that rate would be lower even if it caused more infections, but I don't know anywhere enough about polio to know if that's possible.
– mbrig
15 hours ago
7
@mbrig [Paralysis] occurs in less than 1% of all infections, so nope, not even close to 100%.
– Nic Hartley
15 hours ago
3
3
There's maybe a mismatch here where the quote in the question says 'paralysed by polio' but the data is more 'caught polio', which presumably doesn't have a 100% rate of paralysing people. I would perhaps hope that the live vaccine is with a strain that is unlikely to cause paralysis, so that rate would be lower even if it caused more infections, but I don't know anywhere enough about polio to know if that's possible.
– mbrig
15 hours ago
There's maybe a mismatch here where the quote in the question says 'paralysed by polio' but the data is more 'caught polio', which presumably doesn't have a 100% rate of paralysing people. I would perhaps hope that the live vaccine is with a strain that is unlikely to cause paralysis, so that rate would be lower even if it caused more infections, but I don't know anywhere enough about polio to know if that's possible.
– mbrig
15 hours ago
7
7
@mbrig [Paralysis] occurs in less than 1% of all infections, so nope, not even close to 100%.
– Nic Hartley
15 hours ago
@mbrig [Paralysis] occurs in less than 1% of all infections, so nope, not even close to 100%.
– Nic Hartley
15 hours ago
add a comment |
35
This is not that surprising considering polio is very close to being eradicated.
– antlersoft
22 hours ago
13
This is one reason why they stopped using the live virus vaccine in the US about 30 years ago -- the risk (in the US) of getting the illness from the live vaccine exceeded the risk of getting it "in the wild". But the live virus continued to be used in other (mostly 3rd world) countries because it's more effective and because it actually results in a significant number of "vaccinations" via "contagion". The folks running things here have been pretty good at analyzing the numbers and picking the most effective options.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
6
And, of course, it needs to be noted that a killed virus vaccine has an essentially zero chance of causing the disease. (I say "essentially" because in any human endeavor there's always a chance of human error, such as failing to properly "kill" the virus in the vaccine.)
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
13
And finally, it's good to hear that the virus is finally being eradicated. It took a lot longer than it should have, due to war, politics, and religious fanaticism. As someone who has suffered most of my life from a relatively mild case of polio when I was 2, I would not wish this disease on anyone.
– Daniel R Hicks
21 hours ago
19
Tangent: There were >350,000 cases of polio infection in 1988. 1 As tragic as it is that 21 people got a disease from a vaccine meant to prevent it, that's still an incredible success story for the vaccine. 27 total worldwide cases, versus hundreds of thousands. If you'll pardon my French, sacredieu.
– Nic Hartley
19 hours ago