‘These diseases are now vaccine preventable’: the parallels between polio and COVID-19
Global News
'Many people who decline to be vaccinated against COVID-19 are actually enjoying the benefits of vaccination themselves right now," due to childhood polio shots,' one doctor said.
Sunday marked World Polio Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and physicians are reminding us of the parallels between the highly infectious and crippling disease that spread in the first half of the 20th century and the highly contagious coronavirus.
“Both of these diseases are caused by viruses, and both of these diseases are now vaccine preventable,” said Doctors of BC president Dr. Matthew Chow.
As the number of eligible British Columbians with second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine slowly climbs to 84 per cent, some are still reluctant to get the shot.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Brian Conway said a similar hesitancy existed when the polio vaccine was first introduced in the 1950s.
“Today we don’t even question that it’s part of the vaccines that are given shortly after birth,” the medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre said.
“We’re not there with COVID yet.”
Like COVID-19, polio was spread through the air by people without symptoms talking, coughing or sneezing.
The viral disease hit children under the age of five the hardest, invading the nervous system, causing paralysis and breathing problems.
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