'Got polio?' messaging underscores a vaccine campaign's success but creates false sense of security as memories of the disease fade in US

Polio vaccines have been a massive public health victory in the US. But purely celebratory messaging overlooks the ongoing threat if vaccination rates fall.

Katherine A. Foss, Professor of Media Studies, Middle Tennessee State University • conversation
April 27, 2023 • ~10 min

Fears of a polio resurgence in the US have health officials on high alert – a virologist explains the history of this dreaded disease

Health officials say the new case of polio in New York state and the presence of poliovirus in the municipal wastewater suggests that hundreds more could already be infected with the disease.

Rosemary Rochford, Professor of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus • conversation
Sept. 7, 2022 • ~10 min

Understanding polio and the risks we face

News reports about polio's return worry parents. An expert explains the two types of poliovirus and the importance of herd immunity.

Claire McCarthy • harvard
Aug. 22, 2022 • ~3 min

What is herd immunity? A public health expert and a medical laboratory scientist explain

Vaccination campaigns like the ones that eventually eliminated polio and measles in the United States required decades of education and awareness in order to achieve herd immunity in the U.S. population.

Ryan McNamara, Research Associate of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • conversation
Nov. 3, 2021 • ~6 min

How a virus brought New York to a standstill in the summer of 1916

It brought panic, fear and huge pressure on healthcare. Will we get it wrong again?

Gareth Williams, Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in English, University of Bristol • conversation
April 14, 2020 • ~6 min

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