How Lagging Vaccination Could Lead to a Polio Resurgence

Most American parents rarely think about polio after the moment their child receives the polio vaccination. However, there was a time in this country when polio paralyzed 20,000 people a year, and many of them died.

Vaccines have turned the tide against the virus. Over the past 10 years, there has only been one case in the United States related to international travel.

This situation could change rapidly if polio vaccination rates decline or vaccine availability becomes less available.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic and potential Secretary of Health and Human Services, said the idea that polio has been nearly eradicated through vaccination is a “myth.”

Kennedy has said he has no intention of taking vaccines away from Americans, but he has long argued that vaccines are not as safe and effective as claimed.

As recently as 2023, a batch of an early version of the polio vaccine contaminated with the virus caused cancer and “killed far more people than any previous polio outbreak,” he said. The contamination was real, but the research Never pointed out the link to cancer.