The news that polio is circulating in New York is deeply disturbing, most obviously because polio is a highly infectious viral disease that can leave its victims — predominantly young people — paralyzed. More infuriatingly: There is a vaccine against paralytic polio that is 90% effective. Indeed, in the US, where there is widespread access to the vaccine, polio had become nearly eradicated.
So how is polio now circulating again in New York?
It started in Rockland County, which has a very low vaccination rate — 60% compared to 93% nationwide — a stunning disparity. Tragically, the nucleus of this recent outbreak is a splinter of New York’s haredi community, which in recent years has become anti-vaccine. The current bout of polio isn’t the first case of an outbreak of once dormant diseases among some haredi Jews. Measles and pertussis outbreaks have also occurred in recent years.
The specific motivation behind this anti-vaccine community is unclear, given that most haredi Jews, like most Americans, routinely have their children vaccinated according to CDC guidelines. Blessedly, community leaders have issued statements urging people to get vaccinated.
This type of outreach must exist across all communities — because Rockland County doesn’t even have New York’s lowest vaccines rates. The rates in some New York City neighborhoods, including affluent Battery Park City, are even lower.
Distrust in science comes at a real cost, which is why it is vitally important that the CDC and all scientific authorities be totally transparent about their processes and limitations, and totally focused on the science, whatever its policy implications.
Copyright © 2022 by the Intermountain Jewish News
