Counterintuitive Spring 2023

As desirable a goal as it certainly is, we must face the grim reality that polio will not be permanently eradicated, at least not anytime soon. Though inoculation efforts can and should be pursued where it is feasible, there will seemingly always be factors which frustrate these efforts, especially in less developed countries. War, terrorism, and natural disasters can, on top of their direct human cost, catastrophically derail vaccination efforts. Additionally, there is often a suspicion of ulterior motives in these campaigns, especially when orchestrated by foreign governments. The US government’s use of polio inoculation as a front for espionage, as well as its infamous experimentation on its own vulnerable citizens with syphilis in the 20th century, can’t have helped in this regard. Additionally, there exist communities which might not even be known to exist to those responsible for these efforts, that appear on no maps and have no regular communication with the outside world.

Polio will never cease to exist so long people who thwart anti-polio efforts do exist. Despite the best efforts of organization working to eradicate Polio, terrorism in Nigeria, and vaccine rumors results in major setbacks among operations to rid of Polio. Fear and doubt regarding what’s actually in the vaccine leads to Polio vaccinations being banned completely in the respective area, ultimately boosting the current Polio cases. Even if a vaccination ban is not in effect unknown terrorist groups have been targeting polio workers in Nigeria. This leads to fear among both citizens and anti-polio workers alike. When groups that attack Polio workers and spread rumors about corrupt vaccines surface it’s near impossible to eliminate Polio. If as little as one person believes a rumor or doesn’t receive a vaccine due to terrorism the virus will resurface and the progress will be reset.

Through the traveling of Nigeria, Muhammad Ali Pate is proof that the polio vaccine can greatly help to eradicate polio. Pate himself is going around to different places in Nigeria to make sure that children receive the vaccine, as he highly believes it will help to get rid of it in Nigeria. To make sure of this, after every day, vaccination efforts are reviewed and supervisors report on how many houses they visited, the amount of people who received/didn’t receive the vaccine, etc. He makes sure people know that the vaccine is safe by including his personal life, making the children and parents feel more comfortable with getting the vaccine.

Much like in modern day virus eradication hunts, polio in Nigeria has linked with another issue that facilitates the spread of Polio, false pretenses. Similar to COVID today, polio is surrounded by false rumors that concentrate around birth defects, HIV infection, and many others. Some even go as far as an American Ploy against the muslim population of Nigeria. Which only makes the eradication efforts of the GPEI (Global Polio Eradication Initiative) even more tedious. Leaving too many questions to the Nigerian civilians, who do not know any better due to the infrastructural disadvantages they face. As long as there is significant distrust with the vaccine, the Nigerian people will resist inoculation as the false information spreads. The solution seems to be simple, if the skepticism is neutralized, the virus will follow suit.

The eradication of polio seems grim as we have seen with the difficulty seem giving the vaccine especially with covid-19 halting progress. However the ability to give the vaccine to those who need it is a possibility, its just a possibility that requires certain circumstances. With the right leader in charge of the country with the goal to get rid of the disease combined with the right backing, polio could be gone from countries like Afghanistan in a year as stated by polio vaccine expert Mohammed Mohammedi. With the right focus and support polio could be reasonably eradicated, with major support from the us government and the World Heath Organization.

The poliovirus will never be eradicated because countries do not trust the vaccine. Countries such as Nigeria do not trust that the vaccine is going to help them out. Nigeria believes that the vaccines are contaminated with other deadly diseases to kill off their Muslim population. This misinformation caused Nigeria to stop administering the vaccine to its people. The poliovirus will continue until Nigeria stops believing this rumor and trusts that science will help them.

Polio eradication is a goal that the world is not yet prepared to achieve. The world is currently too preoccupied with other crises to devote resources on eradicating Polio. Because of the huge Covid epidemic that the globe is currently facing, there is no room and effort to deal with Polio. Also today’s world is far too distrustful to ever join the fight against the matter. Even now Covid is affecting everyone’s lives now in some manner, and most are still unwilling to obtain the covid vaccination extending the current pandemic. Because Polio is not prevalent in their own country, the majority of the globe has been desensitized to the issue. For the reasons stated is why the world is not yet ready to eradicate Polio.

The eradication of the Poliovirus will unfortunately not be plausible in the near future. The fear surrounding vaccines is escalating, as current Americans are hesitant to vaccinate their children against Covid-19. The 2013 article by Leslie Roberts expresses the fear and distrust displayed by Nigerian citizens against the polio vaccine and its vaccination campaign. The growing fear led to acts of violence as 10 health workers and one client were murdered when two clinics were stormed. In addition, the already suspicious Nigerians were easily misled by rumors of the polio vaccine being contaminated with the AIDS virus or infertility drugs, which caused the number of cases to increase to 1122 by 2006. This noncompliance has resulted in more outbreaks in previously polio-free countries, which reassures the unremitting cycle of polio reinfection.

The world may never be ready to eradicate polio, no matter how life threatening it can be. The seeds of mistrust have been planted in numerous countries throughout the world. Rumors are the bane of everyone’s existence, any lie passed on to the right people can cause an enormous amount of damage. Nigeria fell victim to rumors doubting the polio vaccine in 2003, causing a rise from twenty cases to a thousand in 2006. The nations we have today will never be able to work together like they once did in order to eliminate smallpox.