Counterintuitive Spring 2023

In the modern era, medical personnel seeking to eradicate polio on a global scale have come up against two new enemies as fearsome as the virus itself: misinformation and mistrust. These already-formidable foes have become even more so as those in positions of trust and power have successfully harnessed their power, utilizing the confusion and chaos left in their wake to further their own agendas. An example of the effect of this manipulation on the eradication effort can be found in Nigeria, where university professors and religious clerics seeking greater personal influence have spread damaging rumors regarding the safety of polio vaccines, in turn allowing the virus to continue to spread. Because of the staggering amount of such unscrupulous leaders throughout the world, the eradication of polio will unfortunately have to wait for a more gentle social climate.

With Polio not being present in America may seem good but that does not mean it is gone forever. Over in Africa specifically Nigeria they had different ideas when studies came out saying there was traces of some contaminates in 2003. Nigeria as a country was having several trust issues with taking the vaccine even though it is just a few drops on the tongue. Violence was another factor into why the vaccine was not being distributed, when a group of healthcare workers were over in the country they ended up being murdered by gunmen as they were coincidentally all women.

The spread of Polio has been something the world has been watching for generations now. We know there are certain vaccinations we can take and steps we can follow to be sure we avoid contracting this illness but we in America are so lucky to be able to day that. Other countries are not as lucky with this and are still being affected in he past decade tremendously. From Syria to Iraq individuals worry there is not enough in place to eradicate this illness entirely. It is seeming to affect young children the most and can cause things as bad as paralysis in these young individuals. The outbreak took citizens by surprise and had them quickly trying to find ways to fix it. One thing they came up with is expediting vaccinations to their citizens especially those more affected. The alarming spread has other countries jumping on the immunization boost bandwagon to attempt and keep themselves safe from this disease. Countries are constantly trying to find ways to eradicate the Polio illness entirely.

People in the world today are not trustful enough of vaccines to eliminate polio. Back in the day, according to NPR: Shots, people truly believed in the science behind these vaccines. They were terrified of how many people it was affecting, and even paralyzed them. In the 1940s, polio was paralyzing over 35,000 people a year. People all went to get vaccinated to feel safe. The campaign, according to NPR, that was put together to try to stop polio made the people of this era feel more secure, since the vaccine was working and knew it was tested and safe. Then, though, the wrong ingredient was put into the vaccine that contained the active virus. This drew people away from the vaccine, in horror. In today’s world, now that people know more about how vaccines work and what approval and testing needs to be done in order to be safe and effective, people don’t want to be vaccinated as much. Also, polio is not as common today, so many think the vaccine isn’t necessary. After seeing what went down with the COVID-19 vaccines, more people are rejecting vaccines overall, because they don’t know if it was thoroughly tested or not. All of these incidents have caused people to maintain a fear against certain vaccines.

The polio virus will never be completely eradicated from existence. The reason the polio virus will never disappear is the same reason the covid virus will likely never disappear. Most people think they are unable to trust any form of higher power, whether it’d be on a smaller scale (CVS, Rite Aid (suppliers)) or large scale (Government Leaders (enforcers)). Rightfully so, but at some point you must concede for the collective advancement of society. Finding the right circumstances for every non-vaccinated human to collectively yield their bodies for the greater good will take nothing less than a miracle. There will always be someone to play the devil’s advocate. 

In 2011, the CIA recklessly chose to pose as Polio vaccinators to assassinate terrorist Osama Bin Laden. This careless tactic has built a lack of trust between the United States and countries that are overwhelmingly plagued with Polio. This distrust has created skepticism and a sense of paranoia that has stood as a barrier from ridding the world of the grisly disease. Far too many acts of violence and deceit have transpired for humans to be able to trust that their neighboring country has their best interest at heart. Countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan, among others, have been led to believe that Polio vaccinators have an ulterior motive. The assassination of Osama Bin Laden reinforced this unfortunate, yet common belief. With this overwhelming lack of trust at large, eradicating Polio appears to be an unachievable goal.

To get rid of Polio forever, we will have to gain the trust of the Nigerian people. The Nigerian people have a theory that the vaccine is contaminated with AIDS virus and/or infertility drugs to wipe out the Muslim population. However the risks of Polio is too high of a cost to not be vaccinated. The people who are encouraging vaccines are not capable of getting every child vaccinated to eliminate the disease. On one hand if they could, it would take hundreds of years. The new appearance of the vaccine frightened many people since it was known that foreign powers are trying to destroy their population. We can not obtain the trust of the Nigerian people if they are being harmed. The U.S can not use violence or pressure the Nigerian people because they want their trust. Pressuring them or using violence will only intimidate or use fear to scare the people. Once this goal is achieved, the hope is that the Nigerian people will take the vaccine and health and wellness will be restored along with trust between the nations.

Building immunized communities in 3rd world countries has proven difficult, making the path to worldwide polio eradication improbable. The efforts by the United Nations along with the WHO to fund and vaccinate these communities, have shown unsuccessful due to the poor living conditions and vaccine hesitancy within certain religious groups. With these campaigns follows a moral dilemma. Going into communities where the polio vaccine is religiously denied, takes away their human rights. In another case, bringing vaccines into refugee camps then leaving sends a crude message: we don’t care for these peoples health truly, our goal is  just to eradicate polio worldwide.