Polio lasted 50 years. Is it a coronavirus?

April 26, 2020 Celebrates 66th Anniversary of Large Polio Vaccine trials with thousands of school childrenGiven what is happening in the world right now, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on issues that our ancestors haven’t faced long ago.

Fortunately, we don’t have to rethink polio today, but since 1916, every summer for 40 years, a polio epidemic occurs.

Each summer, the city closed public gathering areas such as pools and cinemas. Since polio affected primarily children under five, children suspected of having polio were physically removed from the playground and their families were isolated in sanatoriums.

Polio was horrible. American historian and journalist Richard Rhodes described it as a plague. “One day, I had a headache and paralyzed an hour later. How far the virus crept into my spine determined whether I could walk later or even breathe. Waiting for fear of being attacked, one case appeared, then another: the counts began to rise, the city closed the pool, we all stayed at home and worked together indoors I avoided the other kids, when summer looked like winter. “

Just two months ago, the measures to close these public spaces would have sounded extreme. However, a staggering number of polio cases occurred each year, requiring drastic measures. Prior to the availability of the polio vaccine, it was estimated that at the peak of polio, paralyzed and killed up to 500,000 people each year.

American virologists Thomas Hackleweller and Frederick Chapman Robins, who were also pediatricians, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1954 for their isolation of poliovirus. Their research was essential to virologist Jonas Edward Salk, who designed the first successful polio vaccine.

However, this was not the first polio vaccine.

The “honor” goes to two separate research teams, led by Dr. Maurice Brody, a graduate of McGill University School of Medicine, and Dr. John Colmar, Temple University in Philadelphia. Between the two research teams, more than 20,000 individuals, including more than 10,000 children, were used as subjects.

In 1935, researchers published the results at the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association. Philadelphia Medical Association Pointed out continued anger from fellow researchers “The test has proven a disaster [because] A few [test] Subjects died of polio, many became paralyzed, sick, or had an allergic reaction to the vaccine. “

This anger led to the discontinuation of Brodie and Colmar’s polio vaccine research project.

In a world that sometimes seems to be defined by greed, Soak decided to go against the trend and refused to patent his polio vaccine. He believed it was the world. From 1955 to 1962, the “world” polio vaccine Polio cases reduced by 90%

According to the World Health Organization, “Polio cases have been estimated to exceed 350,000 since 1988 and have been reported as 22 cases in 2017. This decline has been attributed to efforts to eradicate the disease worldwide. Today, only three countries in the world have stopped polio transmission (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria). “

The story of the polio epidemic sounds unfamiliar with what we are experiencing today. The list is growing, with schools, dental clinics, restaurants, bars, and beauty salons closing down. Is this our new spring?

Will COVID-19 grow an ugly head every year until vaccine development is successful?

To answer that question, you need to understand that polio has never been eradicated. Yes, as the WHO pointed out, a new incident occurred in Africa last year. And in the Philippines, for the first time in decadesThe key is to achieve herd immunity. This makes the disease slower than crawling, with an eradication rate of at least 95%.

According to the CDC, mass production of influenza vaccines takes at least six months. However, most vaccine developments often take 10 to 15 years.

In the United States, public health officials say that manufacturing a coronavirus vaccine could take 18 months. But what about the annoying problem of reoccurring COVID-19? Spanish cold, to take an elephant in the room example There were three waves and eventually 50 million people died.

To answer this, you need to go back. The first vaccine ever developed was by Edward Jenner, a British physician who infected a patient with mild cowpox in 1797 to inoculate him against the smallpox virus. The word virus actually comes from the Latin word for cow.

The World Health Organization makes a leap forward to the 1950s, when all immunization campaigns were implemented, except to eradicate smallpox after 20 years.

Yes, smallpox, for which there was an effective vaccine in 1798, stalled almost two centuries later when it was eradicated. Note that we use the term “disinfect” rather than “disinfect”. The two are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are not.

Eradication is to reduce new cases of infectious disease to zero worldwide. Elimination means that the disease itself no longer exists.

So don’t worry about polio, smallpox or the Spanish cold when you go to grocery stores or public pools. Because they were eradicated.

This makes the question of whether the Coronoa virus exists after 50 years somewhat cryptic. There is no vaccine yet, but we can do it soon. Then just manage. And the number of immunities in a 95% herd is important, as when the Spanish flu was slipping through crowded trenches in World War I Europe.

In 18 months, maybe 12 months, and preferably 6 months, you will get a vaccine for COVID-19. At that point, the only question we can ask as a society is “Do you want to use coronavirus for 50 years?”